Walk Through Wildfire
by kurisu christina
Summary: If things aren't bad enough for Damon and Elena with Stefan insane and Jeremy gone, the two Salvatore sisters have to show up. Nothing like a dysfunctional family to screw things up. set in S3, written for Kelly.
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer: I don't own VD, and I never did. I DO own Extraterrestrial, though… (aka a TV script I'm working on and failing at). Let's hope someday you're reading fanfiction about it, because that would be so cool!**

**A/N: I know I have a billion other projects going, and I know this is a stupid idea, but hey, why not? I work best under pressure, and what better pressure than around seven fanfics to update and midterms to study for?**

**This fic was inspired by one of my best friends, Kelly, who mentioned how cool it would be to be Damon's sister… so I'm sure you an guess where this is going. Hazel Salvatore is Kelly, and Stella Salvatore is my sister, Kate (KrazyK0 on here, she's planning to post something soon).**

**Hope you enjoy it! (And yes, Kelly, Hazel sounds kinda weird and girly, but she'll be all badbutt—yes, that's a word—and awesome when she's turned. Like Damon, but… a girl.)**

**Also, I can't remember if Damon was around when Katherine first showed up, or at war, or something to that effect… so just bear with me, I'm doing my to keep all the facts right.  
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It was one of those really beautiful days, the kind that made fifteen-year-old Hazel Salvatore want to spend the whole day in the fields with her horse, Black Bess. It was a silly name, in her mind, but her father had named Black Bess, not her. Hazel called her Bessie and Blackie, both more horse-like names.

Bessie was grazing quietly while Hazel stared at the sky from the grassy ground. She wished she could take flight like a bird and soak in all the blue that the sky held, drink from the clouds. Her father said these were silly and foolish thoughts, wanting what she couldn't have. Damon would laugh too, sometimes, but she knew he felt the same way. Stefan said he understood, but most of the time he was busy being quiet and polite like always. He was kind and gentle to everyone he knew, but he wasn't much of a dreamer. Hazel knew he would stay here until he got married, and then he would probably settle down and have a bunch of aesthetically perfect children. It was nice, but boring. Hazel wanted to live, to really live. So did Damon.

"Hazel… dreaming of birds again?"

"Damon!" Hazel sat up, bumping heads with Bessie. "Ow. What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I heard that a visitor was arriving today, and Father wants you at the house."

"A visitor?" It was rare to have a visitor at the Salvatore house. Father didn't like having to pay more money then he had to for anything, and Hazel knew a guest—especially a more permanent one—would cost a lot. "Who? Family?"

"No." he said. "A woman, one who he said lost her family and her house. He offered to let her stay here until she can recover."

"Will she be here soon?"

"Yes, you should start to head to the house now." Said Damon. He walked to his horse, Ginger Fire (yet another of Father's names), smiling. "Race you?"

"Of course!"

Hazel giggled, awkwardly climbing up onto her horse, finally have to pull up her numerous skirts to climb Bessie.

"Manners, Miss Salvatore, manners!" Damon teased.

Hazel made a face at him and settled hr self on her saddle. "You ready?"

"Yes. One… two… three…" he paused for effect. "….GO!"

Hazel kicked Bessie in the side, and the beautiful chestnut horse leapt forward after Damon's sorrel one. She knew she could win; Damon hadn't ridden Ginger in a while because he had been trying to get into the army, which meant Bessie had the advantage. Soon she had gotten next to him and the two were head to head.

"You'll never win!" Damon said, confident.

Hazel said, "Maybe I will. You never know." She pressed her heels into Bessie's side again. "C'mon, girl, you can beat silly old Ginger."

"Hey!"

Bessie picked up the pace just enough to pass Ginger and Damon, Hazel laughing at his expression of consternation. She raced into the stables, pulling the reins hard and forcing Bessie to stop short. A stable boy glared at her, and Damon when he came running in and almost crashed into Hazel.

"Cheater." He complained, but Hazel knew he had probably let her win.

She slipped of Bessie elegantly and handed his reins to the stable boy. "Did not. You're the cheater, Mr. Salvatore, not I."

"Will you allow a cheater to escort you to the house, Miss Salvatore?" He asked, bowing and offering his arm.

"Why of course, Mr. Salvatore." Hazel said, not able to stop her laughing as she took the offered arm. As they walked to the front door, where Stefan was supposedly waiting, she asked, "Do you know anything else about this woman coming to stay with us?"

"Nothing but what I told you… though some of the people who have seen her say she's quite a looker."

"Perhaps a new _friend_ to accompany you on horse rides?" Hazel hinted.

Damon laughed. "You're the only friend I need."

Hazel smiled at that, and kept silent as they finally reached the front door. Stefan was there, talking to someone. She was very slim, Hazel noted, with neatly curled hair, a small face, olive skin, and pretty eyes. Stefan already looked like he was in love.

"Future wife?" Damon joked.

"He seems very… infatuated." Hazel observed.

The woman seemed to hear them and turned around, as did Stefan. "Hello," she said in a girly voice, "I'm Katherine. You must be Damon, the other brother. And… your friend there?"

Hazel sighed. She was always "the other one", like Stella. At least Stella got attention from their Mother… "Hazel Salvatore." She said, curtsying politely.

That's when Hazel noticed Damon's face as he said hello and confirmed his name. His eyes looked softer, almost like Stefan's. Did he actually like this girl?

It became more and more obvious as dinner went on. Stefan and Damon asked Katherine questions, told her all the jokes Hazel had heard before, and listened to her less-than-amusing stories. She was nothing but tragedy, mentioning dead parents and siblings.

Stella didn't say much either, quietly staring at her plate. Her coppery hair looked duller than usual, and she sighed continually whenever she tried to say something and was ignored.

"You all right, Stells?" asked Hazel. Stella sighed and nodded. "Are you sure?"

"I haven't been feeling very well." Stella admitted after a minute. "And now there's… Katherine. I wanted to talk to Stefan, but he's too busy entertaining 'Miss Katherine'."

"Tell me about it." Hazel, lowering her voice a little. "She seems very polite and proper, but she likes too much attention."

Stella nodded. "Don't worry about me. I'll find time to talk to him."

But she didn't, and Hazel didn't get to either. The whole week, and the week after, and the week after that Damon and Stefan followed Katherine around like lovesick puppies. Hazel didn't even have Stella to talk to anymore, because she had fallen ill and was resting most of the time.

One night, after the Founder's Day party Hazel was forlornly making her way upstairs when she heard Stefan talking to Katherine. She heard words like "love" and "beautiful" and "angel" and knew that it was Stefan talking to Katherine. He kept going on and on, and Hazel couldn't help but feel a little satisfied. If Stefan was happy with Katherine it meant that Damon would finally give her the friendship she wanted so badly. Without him there was nothing to do, and if she didn't stay out of Father's way Hazel knew that she would find herself engaged to someone she would hate. Stefan was lucky Katherine had come along, because Hazel knew that Father had planned to set him up with the banker's daughter, who was plain and uninteresting. He was loving, but Stefan would still hate every minute of a marriage like that.

She snuck up when she heard Stefan and Katherine leave, but heard something at Katherine's door. Was it… Damon?

Then, oddly enough, Damon came out of the room looking perfectly happy though it had sounded like Katherine had just kicked him out. "Hello, Hazel." He said, polite and unfazed.

"Um… what's going on? With you and Katherine?"

He looked confused. "What? Why, nothing, of course. She is very lovely, but I'm just a friend to her."

Hazel laughed. Why was he being so strange? "Seriously, Damon, you can tell me. Sounds like she thinks you're a little too forward with her. Girls don't always like that."

He kept looking at me like I was losing it and then shrugged, heading to his bedroom. "I was just bidding Miss Katherine a good night, that's all." He disappeared into his bedroom and shut the door.

Things got even stranger. There were noises from Katherine's bedroom, ones that sounded like terror. Damon and Stefan avoided each other like the plague, and spent all waking hours with Katherine or talking about her. It took forever to convince Damon to drop his "duties" to "entertain Miss Katherine" so he could go on a ride with Hazel.

Out in the meadow again, Hazel kept the talk light for a while, then abruptly switched to Katherine. "So, you and Katherine are very friendly, but so are Stefan and Katherine."

"Yes, they are." He said. "I think he really likes her. She is beautiful, smart, kind… she's perfect for him."

"But… you love her."

"I do."

Hazel was glad he had admitted it, even if it had taken so long. "At least you can say it. I think you should leave her alone, though."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because… she's different." He stiffened, sitting up straighter. "I'm not trying to insult her, I'm just saying that she doesn't seem normal. She's secretive. I don't think that's a good thing."

He glared at Hazel. "She might not be… 'normal' but she's still beautiful to me."

"What if she's just playing with you?" Hazel asked him. She knew it would hurt, but he had to know. "She's too prim and proper for my liking, and I think she's just trying to cover up that fact that's she's messing with you and Stefan. The two of you follow her around like puppies, how could she not like it?"

"You don't understand her." He said again, and got up to get on Ginger. "I have to go. I'm sorry, Haze, but I should go make sure Miss Katherine is all right."

Haze. That was his "little girl" name for Hazel, and she knew it meant he didn't care what she thought. He was too convinced that Katherine was the one.

Then there was another week were Hazel did nothing but stay with Stella, who was lonely and sick. She said that Stefan visited her from time to time, but he was always busy with Katherine. The two of them agreed that one of the boys was going to be left by her, high and dry, with as broken heart. Stella suggested talking to Katherine, but Hazel told her about all the strange things that were happening. They agreed they might as well let it blow over… Stefan and Damon would learn one way or the other.

Father got very nervous that week as well. He had people—a group called the Council—over almost every day. Katherine spent time around them, trying to get onto their good sides. It left Stefan and Damon time to actually see Hazel and Stella.

"You're still not better." Stefan mused. He and Damon had come to see Stella and Hazel, who was usually with Stella. "I'm sure you'll be fine… but shouldn't you spend less time here, Hazel? You could get sick too."

"I'm fine." Said Hazel. "I've got nothing better to do, anyway."

Stefan took the hint and looked down guiltily, but Damon just glared at her.

"You know, I've never really seen you since Katherine came." Stella said.

"I know." Stefan said. "I love her, and I just forget where I am when I'm with her."

Hazel saw a flash of jealousy in Damon's eyes. She didn't know it was possible… the Salvatore brothers were famous for being best of friends. It was just another that Katherine was ruining.

By the end of the week Hazel felt completely different. She woke up on Sunday sick to her stomach, and soon ended up right next to Stella. She burned a fever day and night, and Stella got worse, worse than Hazel. They both laid in bed, in silence, both wishing that Stefan and Damon would take some time to at least come and see them. The maids and two nurses came in and out all day, doing their best to help.

One night Hazel was still awake even though she knew it was well past midnight. She could hear talking outside, what sounded like Damon and Katherine fighting.

"You have to! She's my _sister_, Katherine, and I don't want her to die!" Damon was saying.

Dying?

"She might be fine, you never know…" Katherine said. She was clearly avoiding whatever Damon was asking her for.

"I heard them talking." Said Damon. "I hear what the nurses say. They say that's a fever, one they've seen before. It's going to burn Hazel and Stella from the inside out and no matter what anyone says they don't have a fighting chance. The nurses are only here because of Father, because they have to make it look like they tried!"

"Shhhhhh, Damon, it's going to be fine." Katherine whispered. Damon's sobs were muffled, like Katherine was hugging him. "It's going to be fine, I promise, okay? Those nurses don't know anything…"

"Will you do it… just in case?"

There was a long silence, and then a "Yes."

The door opened and Katherine walked in. "Hazel."

"Katherine?" Hazel asked. "Why are you here?"

She smiled, in a way that was almost evil. "It doesn't matter. You won't remember in a minute or two."

Her face morphed, eyes turning blood red and teeth elongating until her smile held two razor-sharp fangs.

"What—?"

She bit into her own wrist and pressed it against Hazel's mouth before she could scream. Hazel struggled but Katherine—skinny as she was—was strong. Damon was just standing in the doorway and watching like it was normal. Hazel choked and gagged as the thick, repulsive blood flowed down her throat and as Katherine pressed her head into the pillow. Then she was off and Hazel was choking and trying to spit blood out of her mouth. "What are you?"

Damon saw how scared she was and ran in, but held her down when Katherine headed towards Stella. "Hey… hey! It's okay, Hazel, she's saving you."

"What are you talking about? She's a monster!" Hazel screamed, cut off by Damon's hand. "….mmmmmmph…lemme…go..."

"She won't hurt anyone." Damon promised.

Katherine was doing what she had done to Hazel to Stella, but Stella wasn't even trying to fight. She was too weak to care that some psychopath was making her drink blood.

Finally Katherine finished, leaning down to say something to Stella before she came back to Hazel. Her huge brown eyes were still tinted with red. "You will not remember this." She told Hazel firmly. "You were sleeping, and when you wake up you'll feel better. You'll miraculously be well."

"Miraculously." Hazel repeated. Her sight was getting foggy, like maybe Katherine wasn't there. She wasn't… it was a dream…

When her eyes opened the room was empty. Hazel reached up and touched face, finding dried blood. Was she getting worse? Suddenly too tired to care she fell back on her pillow and fell asleep.

In the morning the nurses hovered around, scared by the blood all over Hazel and Stella's faces but perplexed by how fast they were getting better. They chattered about it until Father came in, demanding what happened. It was all so fast Hazel only could remember a few things; Father screaming at the nurses and making them leave, frantically asking if Hazel or Stella had seen anyone, and then storming out.

A few hours later the whole town was out "vampire" hunting, and even Stella and Hazel were told that these creatures were real and that Katherine was one.

They followed then men outside reluctantly, watching at the flickering lights of the torches scattered in all directions.

"I knew there was something odd about her." Stella said, pulling her scarf around her neck tighter. "Just not that she's a monster."

Hazel was about to agree when something whooshed past them and suddenly Anna was in front of them. "You…" she hissed. "You should have died! It's your fault my mother is going to die!"

"What do you mean, Anna?" asked Hazel. "Your mother was fine when I saw her, did she get sick?"

"No." said Anna harshly. "Katherine exposed herself by saving both of you…" Her eyes were burning with rage, loss of something she needed. "You should be dead."

And very suddenly Hazel was.

**A/N: Oooooohhhhhhh…. Anna killed them! In case you can't tell this isn't spellchecked or beta-ed.**


	2. Bracelets and Explanations

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING….besides Hazel and Stella Salvatore.**

**A/N: So, as per usual, I'm ignoring all my other fics and writing a completely new one (this one) when I should be doing other stuff. YAY FOR PROCRASTINATION! Plus it's for my friend, which actually motivates me to write it. As of now I'm supposed to be studying for a Spanish midterm, but I already did that for about three hours, then ran two miles because I was WAY too jittery and freaked and now I'm tired and procrastinating.**

**This is going to be a very short chapter, covering all the years Hazel and Stella spent being vampires that I have no desire to write out (it would take forever). Enjoy!**

At first waking up was a shock, but the memories of Katherine, face twisted, were worse. Hazel was covered in sweat, panicked. Then she realized that it was water covering her, not sweat, and that she was at the bottom of a river.

Hazel kicked hard at the rocky bottom and struggled up, but her body felt like lead. It was so deep and there was no air… but she didn't feel like she _needed _air as much as she usually would. Finally she broke through the surface and saw Stella resting on the riverbank.

"Do you remember things?" Stella asked. Her face was thin and haggard, big green eyes wider in the tiny face and drenched red hair. Hazel nodded and pulled back her black hair, soaked so it stuck to her face. "I remember Katherine looking like a monster and making me drink her blood… and Father said she was a vampire."

"He did."

"And Anna grabbed your neck and twisted it, then mine. We're dead… or we were dead. But Katherine is a vampire."

Hazel nodded again, putting together the pieces. "Yeah, she is. You think that Damon and Stefan…?"

"I'm sure they're fine."

They sat for hours, but hunger was starting to get to them. Hazel had a vague idea that since vampires drank blood that was what she and Stella needed, but the idea repulsed her. She would rather die than kill someone, or even take a little blood. Eventually Stella suggested that they go to the house and see if Stefan and Damon were okay. Hazel figured that since they had been able to deal with Katherine they could help with this new vampire situation.

They didn't dare go in, but from what Hazel could hear Damon and Stefan had been killed… by Father. She was stricken with grief, but Stella helped her get to the woods where Hazel cried until she couldn't anymore. They both agreed to just let themselves die, since they both felt partially human.

But, like usual, luck wasn't on their side. An injured man wandered close by, and Stella was drawn to him in an instant. Hazel tried to stop her but ended up drinking too when she smelled the blood. Both transformed into what they knew had to be true vampires, then fled from the sun.

The first forty years were hard. Each day they had to find a safe place to hide, and each night they would find strangers on the road to eat. They always made sure not to kill anyone, and that they compelled each victim. Stella had accidentally discovered compulsion, and it was a life-saver for the two.

After a while the days, weeks, months, years, decades… they faded into each other. Hazel felt lost without Damon—Stefan too, but Damon more so, because he had been more of a friend to her—but after a while the pain faded with the time. She started to enjoy being able to see the world change around her. It was fascinating the way clothes got shorter and smuttier, the way language changed to include all different accents and slang. Stella said she thought it was cool to go back to the same towns after three or four decades and find it completely different.

The only town they never went back to was Mystic Falls.

Katherine finally showed up in the 1920s, surprising Stella and Hazel. She only told them that she had managed to escape, and she couldn't stay to help them. Instead she gave each a sunlight bracelet so they could walk in the sun like she could. Hazel's was silver with two charms on it; a tiny locket with Stefan and Damon's pictures, and a little silver stake. Stella had a gold one with an identical locket and a gold cross. It scared Stella at first, until Katherine explained that crosses couldn't actually hurt vampires.

And then they kept on living life—or death—as they had. Hazel and Stella traveled, went to concerts, bars, and parties, and changed with the new trends and fashions.

One day, in 2011, Hazel was talking on the phone with a vampire that knew all about older vampires. "Yes… yes, Katherine Pierce. I was wondering if you knew where she was. I saw her in the 1926… no, not since. Yes, Salvatore. Hazel Salvatore." Stella giggled at Hazel's James Bond voice. "Yes, related to Damon and Stefan… what?"

Stella looked up. "What do you mean by what?"

"Shhhhhh! Oh, not you, sir! Sorry." Hazel shooed Stella away. "That's impossible, they must be descendents. Stefan and Damon were shot by our Father… yes, I heard him say so… did I see it? No, but—are you sure? Really?"

Stella waited patiently while Hazel's eyes got bigger and bigger. "Okay. Uh-huh. Thank you so much. Okay… yup. Bye."

"Well? What was that?" Stella demanded.

Hazel took a deep breath for effect. "The man I called… he doesn't know where Katherine is, but he says that Stefan and Damon are alive. Well, they're vampires, but they're still around."

"They… they… we need to go see them now, where are they?"

"Mystic Falls. The guy said something about a doppelganger and tomb vamps and this huge vampire roundup and Klaus—whoever that is—and Elijah and some sacrifice and lots of death and 'animal attacks' and we should go there right now."

In exactly two days they were out of California and in Mystic Falls, and near Elena Gilbert's house, a supposed friend of Damon and Stefan.

"You think that they'll be happy to see us?" Stella asked. The two were a few houses away from Elena's, and they were watching to see if Damon was there.

"Of course, they're our brothers… hey, look!"

Damon and someone with brown hair—she had her back to them—was talking to Damon. Hazel caught bits of their conversation and thought it was eerie how similar this girl sounded to Katherine. Then Damon kissed her, and walked off in the dark towards Hazel and Stella. They caught a glimpse of the girl's face as she looked after Damon.

Katherine.

When Damon got close Hazel reached out and grabbed his shirt, slamming him against the wall off a nearby house. "You have some serious explaining to do."

**A/N: Ooooohhhh, he's in trouble. Once again, this is not spellchecked. And only 1,187 words long.**


	3. Damon gets slapped, doesn't he always?

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just Stella and Hazel.**

**A/N: Again, motivated to write this for a friend, so I'm sorry for neglecting Colorblind but I promise I'll get to it soon.**

**On a completely random tangent, anyone seen the secret circle? I got addicted to it, on the sixth episode.**

**Oh, my friend, Kelly, provided some of the dialogue (and the idea for Hazel slapping Damon)… so… YAY! Even though the poor guy does get hit a lot. **

Hazel glared at Damon, struggling against her grip. "What the hell?" he choked out.

She let him go, and as he turned to hit her she slapped him across the face. Stella gasped. "You didn't even try to find us, and you're still with that bitch, Katherine!"

"Whoah, what?" he asked. He was acting like he didn't know who she was. "What, are you crazy or something?"

"No, I'm you're sister!"

It had the desired effect. Damon stopped in mid-punch and took a look, a really good look at Hazel. He recognized the prominent cheekbones, like his, and the crazy blue eyes and brown-black hair. "Hazel?"

Hazel nodded. "Yes." She said harshly. "Hazel. And Stella. Now why are you with Katherine? You _do _realize she turned you, right?"

"Yeah, I got the memo." He said. "But that girl—"

"It's Katherine, because clearly you don't know what's good for you." Said Hazel.

Stella nodded, hesitant. "Yeah… I mea, she did help us, but… she's still not good for you."

Damon sighed. "That's not Katherine. That's Elena Gilbert. Listen close enough and you can hear her heartbeat, if you'd bother to try."

Hazel rolled her eyes but did what he said. She heard the faint sound of Katherine's voice, and near it, a faint, fluttering heartbeat. It wasn't Katherine.

"You want to explain why you're kissing Katherine's doppelganger?" Hazel demanded. "Doesn't that make you some sort of psychopathic freak?"

"No." Damon was clearly fed up with Hazel. "If you'd let me explain then maybe you would stop making judgments'."

"Maybe he's right." Stella said timidly. "And I'd love to go see Stefan…"

Damon's face fell. "About that… we need to talk."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when we get to the boarding house, okay?"

Stella looked terrified, but nodded. Hazel followed Damon as he started walking down the street, blurring when they were far away from the house with lights in the windows. The boarding house was huge, a giant building of wood and intricate engravings. Inside Hazel noted all the very expensive looking paintings and velvet couches, one of which she slumped onto, looking at Damon pointedly. "Well?"

"Long story short, there was a curse." He began. "We thought that it was to keep vampires prisoner to the sun, werewolves to the moon. Turns out it kept this Original vampire from turning into a hybrid… and he needed the doppelganger to break the curse…"

As Damon explained everything, tomb vampires to Isobel to Katherine's return to the curse, Hazel didn't move at all. Her brother was changed from the man she had known before. He seemed more broken, untrusting… except of this girl… Elena. When he talked about her the lines in his face softened, and he smiled. He hadn't smiled, not since the days when they were both human. Eventually he finished.

"So… where's Stefan?" asked Stella.

"He… after Klaus let him go he decided to be the 'better villain' and outsmart Klaus. He's going insane… I think he's gone for good."

Stella's face crumpled, and she ducked out of the room. Hazel heard her say something about the bathroom. She sighed. "Way to go. You know Stefan meant—means—the world to her, Damon. Besides, we can help him, can't we?"

Damon shrugged. "I don't know."

"But he's free… he's free to turn it on. You said so."

"I did, but I don't think can handle it. He killed so many people so violently, he hurt Elena, and he would have hurt the people she loved. The normal, brooding Stefan would never be able to accept that." Damon said. Hazel saw the pain in his eyes. "I think that he just can't live with it, so he's trying to make up for it in his lack-of-feelings way."

"I guess." Hazel still hoped that they could bring him back. "So… what do we do next?"

He smiled a little. "We introduce you to everyone. They'll be thrilled to meet you, I'm sure."

"Can't wait."

**A/N: Sorry it's short. The next chapter will be much better… how do you think that everyone will react to Hazel and Stella?**

**Reviews please? You can review my story even if you don't have an account.**


	4. Jeremy

**A/N: This is mostly going to be introductions and a lot of "OMG Damon you have sisters?" because I'm working on an actual plot right now… should I just write Stella and Hazel into the show during season 3 or should I start a plot mostly separate from season 3?**

**Also, I'm going to write this in first person from now because it's what I'm used to… third person just never works for me. I like being inside people's heads better :)**

Hazel's POV

I was curious about meeting Elena, meeting the girl that made my brother so happy. In my mind she was still the psychotic bitch that had screwed up Damon's mind, but it was only because she looked like Katherine. I wanted to see if she if she was really a different person, if she was really the girl Damon said she was.

He stopped outside her house and glared at Stella and I. "Please, no childhood stories, no Stefan questions, and no insults just because she looks like Katherine, okay?"

I glared right back. "I'm not promising anything."

"Hazel, just do it…" Stella said. "I won't, I promise."

"Good." Damon said to her. He turned to me. "Haze?"

"No." I said, pouting.

"Hazelllllllll….."

"No!" I repeated. "I won't kill her, but that's the only promise that you get."

He thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Fine. But whatever you do might get you a stake through the stomach, so you've been warned."

"I'll play nice with your little doppelganger, I promise." I said, hating how Katherine-esque it sounded as soon as I said it.

"Good." He knocked on the door. After a minute Elena opened it, but when she saw him she tried to slam the door in his face. "Hey, hey, just let me in."

"I can't think about it now, or talk about it, okay? Please, Damon?" She begged. I assumed she meant the kiss I had witnessed the night before. "Jeremy's packing and I just want to be with him until he leaves… who are these people?"

"That's what I have to explain when you let me in." said Damon.

She sighed, but stepped aside. I followed, scanning the house. It seemed normal, almost inviting. Nothing that could tie Elena to Katherine besides the face that looked so innocent but made me feel like I was in danger.

She led us to the living room, then sat down in a chair where Damon couldn't join her. He sat on the couch with Stella and I.

"Well?" She asked. "Who are they?"

"Stella and Hazel Salvatore." He said, pointing to each one of us. "They're my sisters."

"Hi." I volunteered, smirking at the look of confusion on her face. "You know, you look an awful lot like Katherine."

She nodded. She looked dazed. "Sisters?"

"Yeah." Damon said. "See, they both got really sick, to the point of death, when we knew Katherine. I convinced her to… you know…"

"Turn them?" Elena asked. "Why would you do that to your own sisters?"

"No, I asked her to heal them with her blood." Elena blushed and ducked her head. _You should feel guilty._ I thought. _Damon meant well… he always does._ "Then, during the roundup of vampires, Anna found them and killed them since Father got her mother captured. She blamed them, and they had vampire blood in their systems. She thought that since father saw they had blood on their faces the morning they woke Katherine and the others were discovered. She didn't know it was because Katherine was drugged with vervain."

"Oh." Said Elena. "Okay… wow. So, you have two sisters and they're here because…?"

"Hello, sitting right here." I complained. "We're here because we both thought our brothers were dead for over two hundred years."

"You going to stay?"

Where we going to stay? I hadn't thought about it. Honestly, I had planned to find Damon and then stay wherever he was. He was my brother, and no matter how much he had changed I would always love him… but from what he had said Mystic Falls wasn't vampire-friendly anymore. So many people died and were dying, vampires included. There were _werewolves_, which I hadn't known could exist until a day ago.

"Yeah, I think so." I said at last. "Someone needs to keep Damon out of trouble."

"Me? Trouble?" Damon asked. I glared at him. "I think it's you you're talking about here, missy, not me. Who was the one that dropped a wasp's nest on Stefan? 'Cause it wasn't me."

"You did what to Stefan?" Elena asked.

Damon smiled at the memory. "We were all in the woods, and Hazel had climbed up in a tree to avoid Stefan. There was a wasp's nest, and since she didn't want to get stung she loosened the branch before the wasps noticed. What she forgot was that Stefan was right below where she was, and… you get the idea."

"Why did Stefan never mention you?" she asked, directing the question at Stella and I.

"He though we were dead." I said simply. "Why go there when we would never show up to cause trouble?"

"Then why didn't you try to find Damon and Stefan?"

I sighed. "_We_ thought _they_ were dead, so we didn't bother."

"It seemed pointless to spend all eternity searching if it would only hurt us." Stella added. "It's not like we weren't happy…"

Elena nodded and glanced at Damon. "Is that all you needed?"

"Well… yeah, that's it." He said. "Unless…"

"No."

"Can't I just talk to you for a minute?" He pleaded. Elena sighed and shook her head. "Please, Elena?"

"Oh… fine." She glanced at us and grabbed his hand, pulling him away and towards the kitchen.

I settled back on my chair. "This is going to take while…"

Fortunately a while wasn't as long for me, when I saw someone who was definitely attractive walk in with a bag. "Hey." He said, stopping to stare at us. "Who are you?"

"Hazel Salvatore." I said, Stella chiming in with, "And Stella Salvatore."

"Salvatore?"

"Loooonnngggg, complicated story." I said. "You?"

"Jeremy Gilbert." He said, offering a hand. "I was just coming to ask Elena for something… moving out, you know. I'm going to live with some relatives to get away from the vampires." He said the last part honestly, knowing that if we were Salvatores then we had to know.

I watched him closely as he walked away… there was something funny in his face. I couldn't' place what it was but there was something. Before I could pursue him Damon was back and he herded us out, looking confused and conflicted. I caught a glimpse of Elena as we left, and I saw tears in her eyes. 'Way to go, you made her cry." I hissed at him as he was shutting the front door.

"I didn't mean to." He snapped. "Just trying to work things out…"

I let him and Stella get ahead of me, and I doubled back to go see Jeremy. I wanted to know what it was that was bothering me, and what other time would I have if he was leaving?

He was in his room when I lightly jumped to the roof and knocked on the window. He didn't look the least bit surprised as he came to open the window. "Hey… Hazel, was it?"

"Yeah, hi." I slipped into his room. "Sorry to awkwardly barge in like a creeper, but I just wondered why you were leaving."

"It's safer with relatives." He said. There it was again! That blank, slightly emotionless stare as he said those words. "Where there aren't any vampires."

I had seen it so many times in the people I compelled. Ones that were freshly compelled, a day or two after, still had a hard time putting emotion into what they said. It wasn't like it was real, so it took a few days to really set in. Someone had compelled Jeremy to leave where it was safe… and he was Elena's brother. She was the doppelganger, which made her a target. Which made him a target.

I knew who had done it.

"You've been compelled." I sad suddenly. "I know you might think you're leaving on your own, but you're not, Jeremy. I think Damon compelled you."

"What?"

"He compelled you to want to leave, Jeremy."

Jeremy stared at me like I was insane, but I could see realization dawning in his eyes. "That… that happened once. He compelled me to forget Vicki. Why would he compel me to leave? It doesn't feel like compulsion.. I _know _I have to go. It's safer… right?"

I felt pity for him. "Look, I can compel you stay but have you remember. Is that okay?"

"I… I guess." He took a bracelet off his wrist and handed it to me. "I don't know why I trust you… you're Damon's sister."

"I won't if you don't want me to."

He shook his head. "No, do it."

I took a breath and looked into his eyes, which were very pretty… but I shook myself and focused. "You were compelled to leave by Damon, but you're going to stay. You know it was me that compelled you… but I promise I'll never do it again, not if I don't have to."

He blinked. "I fell different. Like I don't have to leave anymore."

"Kind of the point." I teased, throwing back his bracelet. "Goodnight, Jeremy."

"You're leaving?"

I nodded. "Got to keep Damon from getting suspicious."

He looked crestfallen, which I took as a sign of victory. I didn't know much about him, but I liked Jeremy. "Oh. Okay… will I see you again?"

"Sure." And I left before he could say another word.

**A/N: Not spellchecked. Hope you liked it.**


	5. Our Town

**A/N: Sorry for no updating this in a long time… I was busy.**

**Basically from now on I'm going to take the current episodes and re-write them with Stella and Hazel. So… that would make this chapter a different version of "Our Town".**

_Last time…_

_I watched him closely as he walked away… there was something funny in his face. I couldn't' place what it was but there was something. Before I could pursue him Damon was back and he herded us out, looking confused and conflicted. I caught a glimpse of Elena as we left, and I saw tears in her eyes. 'Way to go, you made her cry." I hissed at him as he was shutting the front door._

_"I didn't mean to." He snapped. "Just trying to work things out…"_

_I let him and Stella get ahead of me, and I doubled back to go see Jeremy. I wanted to know what it was that was bothering me, and what other time would I have if he was leaving?_

_He was in his room when I lightly jumped to the roof and knocked on the window. He didn't look the least bit surprised as he came to open the window. "Hey… Hazel, was it?"_

_"Yeah, hi." I slipped into his room. "Sorry to awkwardly barge in like a creeper, but I just wondered why you were leaving."_

_"It's safer with relatives." He said. There it was again! That blank, slightly emotionless stare as he said those words. "Where there aren't any vampires."_

_I had seen it so many times in the people I compelled. Ones that were freshly compelled, a day or two after, still had a hard time putting emotion into what they said. It wasn't like it was real, so it took a few days to really set in. Someone had compelled Jeremy to leave where it was safe… and he was Elena's brother. She was the doppelganger, which made her a target. Which made him a target._

_I knew who had done it._

_"You've been compelled." I sad suddenly. "I know you might think you're leaving on your own, but you're not, Jeremy. I think Damon compelled you."_

_"What?"_

_"He compelled you to want to leave, Jeremy."_

_Jeremy stared at me like I was insane, but I could see realization dawning in his eyes. "That… that happened once. He compelled me to forget Vicki. Why would he compel me to leave? It doesn't feel like compulsion.. I__know__I have to go. It's safer… right?"_

_I felt pity for him. "Look, I can compel you stay but have you remember. Is that okay?"_

_"I… I guess." He took a bracelet off his wrist and handed it to me. "I don't know why I trust you… you're Damon's sister."_

_"I won't if you don't want me to."_

_He shook his head. "No, do it."_

_I took a breath and looked into his eyes, which were very pretty… but I shook myself and focused. "You were compelled to leave by Damon, but you're going to stay. You know it was me that compelled you… but I promise I'll never do it again, not if I don't have to."_

_He blinked. "I fell different. Like I don't have to leave anymore."_

_"Kind of the point." I teased, throwing back his bracelet. "Goodnight, Jeremy."_

_"You're leaving?"_

_I nodded. "Got to keep Damon from getting suspicious."_

_He looked crestfallen, which I took as a sign of victory. I didn't know much about him, but I liked Jeremy. "Oh. Okay… will I see you again?"_

_"Sure." And I left before he could say another word._

Hazel's POV

After I compelled Jeremy to stay I kept clear of Damon and Elena. She was expecting him to leave this morning and I knew if she saw he was still here she would assume it was Damon, or make the correct assumption; that it was me. I kept going through the whole event in my mind. I talked to him, compelled him, and left. She hadn't seen us together, had she? I was sure she hadn't, but she could have heard talking. Jeremy had fallen in love with vampires before, and according to what Damon said, his luck with them was awful. His only "human" girlfriend—who didn't even count, being a witch—had dumped him because he had made out with his ghost vampire girlfriend in the grill's bathroom. That was one screwed-up relationship.

Damon and Stefan had headed to the abandoned witch house where they kept the coffin, so that meant I had some time to see how Jeremy was doing. I hadn't spoken to him since the night before, and I figured that he would want to know who I was.

I slipped into a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt. Damon had said it always brought out the vibrant blue in my eyes, the same exact color as his. Of course, I told myself it wasn't because I wanted to look pretty. What did I care what Jeremy thought?

Stella stopped me at the bottom of the stairs. "Where are you going?"

"Checking up on Jeremy." She knew about the compulsion. If Stella had one strength, it was detecting lies. She could smell a lie, or even a half-truth, from a mile away. I had figured it would be easier to just tell her than to avoid her. In fact, avoiding her would be so much worse.

She nodded and stepped aside. "You like him, don't you?"

"I don't know." I was completely lying. I didn't think so, anyway.

"Oh really…?"

"Yes, really." I told her, grabbing my jacket. "And don't you say I'm lying, because I'm not. I just want to see if he's doing okay. Elena's going to realize something's wrong when she sees him still at home."

She gave me one of her patented looks, the kind that said she knew what was going on even if I didn't. I ignored her and walked out. After I got a few miles away I ran to the Gilbert's house.

Jeremy was pacing back and forth in his room when I came in, and he looked upset. "Hey."

His head went up at the sound of my voice, like a dog that's missed it's owner. I cringed as soon as the metaphor passed through my head… that was awful. I didn't think of Jeremy as some pet, like Damon's dead human "blood bag", Andie. He was my friend.

"Hazel, hey!" he said, giving me an awkward but well-meant embrace. "I was wondering where you went."

"The boarding house, with Damon and Stefan." I said. "Where else?"

"Right."

The creases at the corners of his eyes bothered me "Is something wrong?"

He sighed and sat down on the bed. "Sort of. I told Elena I decided to stay, and she freaked. Then, when I came up here, I heard her talking to Damon on the phone. Something about compulsion not working, and doing it again." he shuddered. 'I don't want to leave her here with no one but Damon and Alaric. It isn't right."

I hesitantly edged towards the bed. "I know."

He looked up at me, capturing my icy eyes in his soft, warm, chocolate ones. "I have to make them think I've left."

"How?" I got even closer to the bed.

"I need to say I'm leaving, and find a place to stay so I can keep an eye on Elena and make sure she's safe."

I finally got ext to him, and sat down. I was so close I could hear his heart beating and smell lemons and the faint odor of blood on him. Blood, but not his. Damon had said Jeremy had killed a hybrid on his own, and I guessed it hadn't washed out of his shirt well enough for me not to smell it. "You could stay at the boardinghouse… no, someone would find you."

I stayed next to him for the longest time. I didn't know mystic Falls well enough to think of a safe place fro him to stay, not until…

"My house!" I exclaimed. He looked at me, confused. "You can hide out in my house."

"You said the boardinghouse wouldn't work." He said.

"No, silly, my _old _house." I said, giddy with happiness. Jeremy was thrilled and jumped up to start gathering his stuff.

"You sure it's safe?"

"Of course." Sure, it was a ruin, but it had to still be there.

Right?

I waited for him two blocks away, giving him time to say he was going to a bus stop and then heading to the airport. I heard Elena's sobs and goodbyes, and finally Jeremy was in Damon's car with me. "Ready?"

"Ready."

I was shocked when we reached the house. What was left was covered in twisting green vines. They hid everything from view; the once neatly trimmed lawn, the beautiful gardens, the artistically carved doors, the windows, the pillars that held the house up, and my little window that overlooked the whole property. I felt my heart sink.

"This looks… remote." Said Jeremy. I glared at him. "Sorry."

I decided to ignore him, only gesturing to him so he would follow me. At the door I had to rip vines away and test the floors for weaknesses—at great risk, seeing as they were wood—and I led him all the way to the only stable-looking room. The room I almost died in.

"This place is beautiful once you get past the dirt and the walls falling down." he joked. When I didn't respond, he glanced at me. "You still mad at me? Is something wrong?"

"This is where I was made to drink vampire blood." I said.

He came closer to me. "By Katherine?"

"Yeah." I said. I could almost see the shadowy reflections of candlelight on the walls as my fever made me delusional and I thought I saw ghosts come to get Stella and I. "Stella… she got sick. She was never very strong, and then one day she kept getting worse. Damon and Stefan were busy with 'Miss Katherine'—" I bit out the name harshly, and it still brought back a flood of unpleasant memories. "—so I stayed with her. Then I got sick and we both were in here for weeks with doctors and nurses rushing in and out." I gulped.

"So Katherine tried to save you?" he asked, as though he couldn't believe it to be true.

I shook my head, taking a seat on one of the rotting cots in the room. "No, she didn't. I heard her and Damon outside one night, when the fever was starting to get to me. He said the nurses had all seen this before, and it always claimed it's victim's lives. He was terrified. He felt awful for never visiting us so he begged her to save us and she did. Her blood cured us within a day."

"So you didn't turn?"

"Not then." I said. "Anna blamed us for her mother's capture and killed us. She didn't know we had blood in our systems."

"Anna." He murmured, looking down guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"It's not you fault. She was just hurt and angry." I reassured him. She was a good person."

After a minute he nodded. "I know she was."

After that I left him in silence, promising to come back and bring him food and more blankets. It was cold, but he would be able to survive.

When I got home Damon was raging on and on about Caroline—who sounded familiar… she had been a vampire he mentioned—and how she had let her werewolf/vampire hybrid boyfriend bite her so now she was dying. I just shrugged when he asked me what he should do.

I had other problems to worry about; Stella wasn't in the house anywhere.

Stella's POV

I edged around the house, listening to the quiet whispers inside. It was strange, but I had really liked Caroline. I had met her at the grill while Hazel was out doing something with Jeremy and she had accepted me despite the Salvatore name. When I had heard a werewolf had gotten her I felt awful and decided to stay with her. It wasn't like Tyler would do it. He would be more likely to rip her to shreds.

When I got there I heard whispers inside, and I could hear a man saying something to her.

"… but I'll let you in on a secret. There is a whole world out there, waiting for you. Great cities, and art and music. Genuine beauty…"

The man's voice was slow, rhythmic, and distinctly British. I couldn't hear much more than that, and I was about to sneak away when someone pinned me to the wall. My captor was extremely strong, blond, and flashing me a menacing smile.

"What have we got here?"


	6. Ties That Bind, Ties That Break

**A/N: Another chapter, courtesy of Kelly's VD withdrawal since it won't be on for weeks. That, and the fact that I should have done at least three or four chapters over vacation…**

**This is set in the episode "The Ties that Bind"**

Stella's POV

My breath hitched in my throat. "Hi."

"Who are you?" he demanded. "I know you're a vampire."

"I… I…" I stammered helplessly. "I was just coming to see Caroline because I heard a werewolf got her. She's my friend."

He smiled cruelly. "Oh. Who are you, then? I didn't catch a name in that boring explanation."

"Stella Salvatore."

His eyes glittered with something unrecognizable and unsettling. "Oh. A Salvatore…" he let me go. "Caroline will be just fine. I cured her."

I didn't know what to say, so I mutely nodded my head. He let me pass.

"Oh, Stella?"

I turned around, expecting him to bite me or rip my head off. "Y-Yes?"

"It was nice to meet you."

Hazel's POV

"So you have to go find Bonnie's runaway mom to open some stupid sealed coffin with witch-y juju on it?" I asked, ignoring Damon's annoyed glare.

"Yes." He said shortly. "Your point?"

"That kind of sucks for Bonnie." I said. "think about it from her perspective; her mom, who left her years ago, was a witch and she didn't prepare Bonnie or even care enough to stay around long enough to tell Bonnie. Besides, she _left._"

"So?"

I smacked him in the head with my book—City of Glass—and frowned. "Don't be so insensitive. How would you feel if it was your mom?"

He said, "I would want to tell her off for leaving me."

"No you wouldn't." I said. I slid from the couch and crouched next to him by the coffee table, where he was googling "Abby Bennett". "You would want her to still love you, and you would want to know she left for a good reason."

He sighed. "What I want right now is for you to go back to your book and stop annoying me."

"Fine." I crawled back onto the couch and curled up, book directly in front of my face.

Five minutes later I shrieked, "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" and threw the book across the room, narrowly missing Damon's head.

"What?" he asked.

"They… Jace and Clary… on the hill by the house—! and they're… EWW! I feel so violated!" I yelped, ignored his puzzled looks. "Ew, ew, ew, ew!"

"You need to calm down." He said. "It's just a book, Haze, not the end of the world." I saw him pulling up pictures of a pretty, brown-hair, brown-eyed woman with a soft smile that matched Bonnie's.

I plopped on the floor next to him again and said, "You haven't read it, so you can't judge. These two characters, Jace and Clary, they sort of fell in love and then found out they were siblings. They knew it for three books now and they almost slept together anyway!"

"Fiction these days." Damon complained. "It's not what it used to be."

"Oh, like you've even touched a book in the last hundred years." I said.

He shrugged. "What can I say? No time, what with being a badass vamp and all."

I grinned. "Yeah, yeah… so I that's Bonnie's mom?"

"Yup, that's her." He said. He hit "print" and got up. "I have to go. Stay here and stay out of everyone's way, especially Stefan's. Got it?"

"Fine." I pouted.

It was the most boring day of my life. The whole time people kept texting me—I was fast at getting people's numbers and texting them until they realized it was me—but I couldn't go and join them. It was torture.

_Hey, Haze, what r u doing? ~Caroline_

_Talking to Klaus. Stay at home. ~Stefan_

_Almost to Bonnie's moms house. Nervous… ~Elena_

_Where is everyone? ~Stella_

I sulkily ignored all my texts. The one I was really waiting for was Jeremy's, but what I wanted even more was to go and visit him. I didn't know why I was still here; it wasn't like I'd ever listened to Damon before. I thought about it, read the rest of my book, and finally decided that I had no reason to listen to him now if I never had.

When I reached the old Salvatore house Jeremy was still fast asleep. I laid down on the cot next to him, pulling my knees up to my chest and watching him. He was so… _human_. It was silly, but I hadn't had any sort of friendship with a human in years. It was just Stella and I, traveling the world and seeing the sights. Humans were only obstacles in the streets of Paris, or the waterways of Venice. It was that I looked down on them—I was actually jealous of them—but it was more that I couldn't relate to them anymore. They were full of life, and I wasn't. They wanted a lot of things I didn't care about anymore.

He slept for nearly three more hours before I saw his eyelashes flutter softly. "Hi…" he mumbled, clearly half-awake. "Finally decided to visit me, huh?"

"Can't have Damon getting suspicious." I said. I stretched my hand across the empty, sheet-less expanse and twined my fingers with his. They were oddly warm. "You feeling okay?"

He yawned. "I'm just tired a lot recently. Don't worry about it…" his eyes closed slowly.

"Jeremy?" for a second I thought it was one of those things where someone just died, though it was a ridiculous thought.

"What?" he seemed annoyed at my loudness.

I breathed a quick sigh of relief. "Nothing."

He was hotter than usually, and not in the attractive sense. It was the kind of hot that meant he had to be burning a fever. I stayed with him until I saw the sun going down through the windows. "Jeremy?"

"…. Huh?"

"I'm going to get you more blankets and food, okay?"

"Sure." He slid under the covers.

I left the building with worry weighing down my heart. It was just a cold. It had to be.

It wasn't like the germs from decades ago would still be there, right?

When I reached home Damon was furious. "Where were you?"

"I was out."

"You shouldn't be, it's dangerous!" he fumed. "Stefan's been messing with Klaus, and Bonnie's mom went psychopathic. Then Stefan just had to show up and screw with Elena's head…!"

"Calm down." I advised. "Everyone's okay, right?"

"Yeah, everyone's okay." He said. "Physically, anyway… but you still shouldn't have gone out!"

I slammed my bag on one of the antique wooden tables. "I've been on my own for years, Damon, I think I can handle my safety myself. I'm not a baby."

"Fine. Go get killed." He snapped back at me.

I regretted my hasty and harsh words, but there wasn't much I could do. One thing I had learned during my time as a vampire is that once you said something there was nothing you could do to un-say it. It was just Damon feeling guilty for not being there for me when I first turned. I always wondered what would have happened if I could have been there for him. I had a feeling I would have sat with him on the old riverbank where he was taken when he turned and died with him. I wondered what Stella would have done.

I was starting to wonder where Stella was right now.

Stella's POV

I skirted the ruins of what seemed to be an old slave cellar. Caroline had texted me, saying she was there with Tyler and her dad. From what she had told me about her dad before, I wasn't so sure that was a good idea.

I heard a soft sob and found Caroline curled up at the base of a tree near the cellar's entrance. "Caroline?"

"Stella…" she mumbled, looking up at me. "Hey."

"What's wrong? What are you doing here?" I asked, coming to sit next her and wrapping my arms around her shivering form. An inhuman shriek pierced the air around us. "Caroline…?"

"T-Tyler and my dad are trying to break Tyler's bond with Klaus." She sniffed. "He keeps making Tyler turn into a werewolf, over and over and over until it doesn't hurt."

I sucked in a sharp breathe. "Oh." I had heard that transforming into a wolf felt like having all your bones break and reform and break again, until the pain was unbearable. I shuddered. "That's cruel."

"Maybe I can convince Klaus to let him go." Caroline choked, out to my surprise.

"What?"

"He… he came to save me last night, and he seemed different." She said. "I don't know. Maybe he can change."

"Maybe." I pressed closer to her and rested my red head against her pale blond one. "But for now we have to wait it out."

Hazel's POV

When I got back Jeremy was worse. He was curled up tightly, sweating and moaning in his sleep. I put ice on his forehead, sang to him, and tried to coax him to eat— nothing worked. Eventually I realized what I had to do.

"Jeremy?" I asked softly, stroking his sweat-soaked hair to wake him.

"What?" he opened his eyes. They looked dull and glazed over.

I sighed. "I think you need to go to a hospital."

**A/N: So, soooooooo short. I'm sorry :( I'll do a longer one next time.**

**Oh, it's also not spellchecked.**


	7. Bring Out The Dead

**A/N: And I am writing this to apologize for the fact that I left the last chapter on a major cliffhanger and Kelly said she might have to strangle me if I didn't write more.**

Hazel's POV

Jeremy was lighter than he looked, and it scared me. I wondered if he'd been eating at all, or drinking enough water. I wondered how on earth he could have been sick without me noticing.

I carried him all the way to the hospital, until we reached the doors—a hundred pound girl carrying a boy that had to weigh at least two hundred pounds would raise suspicion, and there was already enough of that in Mystic Falls—so I managed to get him on his feet and half-carried him in.

"What's wrong?" a nurse asked me right away as he slumped over in one of the chairs in the waiting room.

"He's really hot, like he's burning a fever, and I don't know when he last ate." I said in one breathe. "Or drank anything. I think he's really sick you have to help him—"

"Of course, just calm down." She said in that icy, uncaring tone some nurses acquired over the years. I remembered hearing it when I was sick and dying, and I hated it.

"You will help him _now_, damn it, or I will do something drastic." I growled, watching as her pupils contracted and she fell under my compulsion. She jerkily walked over, lifted him up by the arm, and called to another nurse and a doctor.

I was tempted to compel my way to wherever he was, but I was too scared to. There was no way I would stand next to him if he was going to die. I would lose it, or distract the nurses with my pacing.

I was swinging my legs restlessly when I noticed that Caroline, Stella, and Elena were only a few feet away. When had they gotten here?

"It was awful!" I heard Stella saying to Elena. Caroline was too distraught to say anything. "We were just sitting outside, listening to Tyler scream, when there was this smell of blood everywhere all at once and then Tyler went streaking by us."

I stiffened. Of course there was a werewolf loose; why shouldn't everything in my life go to hell all at once?

"Oh my God." Elena breathed. I had seen that in her before, that genuine concern for everyone but herself. I admired her for it because I knew I was terrible at being that way. Here I was, upset because my life was falling to pieces while it was Jeremy who had his life on the line.

"Will he be okay?" Elena was asking. Caroline shook her head, tears tracking down her face and leaving mascara stains. Elena pulled her into a hug. With my enhanced senses I could hear her whisper, "It'll be okay, Caroline, I promise. It'll be okay."

I sighed and pulled my legs up onto the chair so I was in a fetal position. I felt so alone and unprotected. I knew I should have called Stella over, but Caroline obviously needed her more than I did, and I already felt bad enough without her telling me I should have never let Jeremy stay at our old house.

I didn't know how long I was there, but I was starting to get sleepy when I looked up and saw a familiar face topped with gold-blond hair. "Klaus."

"Hazel." He said, sitting down next to me. "What are you doing here?"

"What are _you _doing here?" I tried to keep my voice from shaking but failed.

He shrugged. "Just seeing what Caroline was up to."

"Oh." I felt very small. "Well, she's here because her dad got hurt. You should go talk to her." I had no idea what I was saying. Why would I suggest that he go _talk_ to Caroline when it would only terrify her?

He nodded and then sat in silence next to me. After a while the tight knots in my stomach started to come undone, and I tried to ignore him while reaching out with my hearing and trying to find the room Jeremy was in. I wasn't exactly sure if I had it right, but I thought I heard soft, easy breathing wherever they had take him. That, and lots of doctor-talk that I couldn't understand.

I looked back at Klaus, who was regarding me with what seemed to be fatherly affection. I shuddered. "Keep your eyes to yourself, will you?"

"I'm sorry to bother you." he replied, cool as ice. "I should be leaving anyway."

I thought _Yes, you should. _but kept it to myself. I knew I shouldn't get on Klaus's bad side, not if I could help it.

When he was out of sight I looked for Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie, but they had gone. I listened until I heard them somewhere in a different part of the hospital. From what they were saying they were in Caroline's dad's room, and he was going to be okay.

Finally, _finally_, a nurse came out and gestured for me to come over. It took all my willpower not to use vamp speed to get to her.

"Yes?" I asked eagerly.

"He's fine." The nurse said. "He contracted a rare flu virus that used to be around in the 1800s, though I don't know how. It's hard to cure but since you brought him to us before a week or so passed, he'll be fine."

"Good." Of course, it was that stupid virus that had nearly killed me. How could I be so stupid? "Can I see him?"

"Yes, of course you can. Do you know his name?"

I nodded, saying, "Jeremy Gilbert." I was too anxious to see him, so I didn't care why she wanted his name.

Jeremy was propped up on the bed with pillows, tubes coming from his arms and mouth. I gulped, nervously entering and sitting down in one of the dirty plastic chairs. "Umm… hey."

"Hi." He slurred, clearly on medication. "You're still here, huh?"

"I am." I said. "Sorry that my germs from nearly a two hundred years ago almost killed you."

"S'okay."

"Good." I settled back, crossing my arms over my chest for comfort. "Any plans for a new place to stay? I'm not letting you go back to my old house. I guess that means you can't have any of the clothes you left their either."

"Oh, darn. I really liked those old, torn rags." Jeremy teased. His eyes had barely opened when I came in, and now they were shutting.

I smiled. "I bet you did."

There was a small sound at the doorway, and I looked up. Elena stood there, hands placed over her mouth. I froze.

"Your brother came down with a very rare type of flu, from the 18oos," the nurse was saying, "and he's luck to be alive. It's thanks to this young lady, who brought him in."

Elena barely nodded, but there was recognition in her eyes when she saw me. _She knew that I had helped Jeremy stay in Mystic Falls. _Even if she didn't know it wouldn't take a genius to figure it out.

She came next to his bed and took one of his hands. "Jeremy?"

He stirred. When his eyes re-opened they widened. "Elena?"

"Why aren't you with relatives, far away from here?" she asked, glaring at me as she said it. "I thought you decided it was for the best, to go there and become a normal teenager."

"No, you decided that, and Damon compelled me." Jeremy corrected her.

Elena's big, innocent eyes widened, and her head spun in my direction. "You… you knew, didn't you?"

"Yeah… yes." I murmured, scowling. "But it was wrong."

"Wrong?" Elena scoffed, the usual caring glimmer in her eyes replaced with something fierce; something wild and instinctual, a mother's instinct. "Who are you to say whether it's wrong or not? I'm sure you've done much worse things with compulsion before."

I opened my mouth to say something in retort, and then snapped it shut. I had done some bad things, but they had all been to protect Stella. "They were never meant selfishly."

"Sure they weren't." said Elena, sarcastically.

"They weren't." I insisted. "And what you did was _wrong_. You took away Jeremy's will, and you'd already done it before. You should have let him decide."

Something flashed in Jeremy's eyes, like he was surprised I was defending him so completely. I ignored Elena's continuing rant and just smiled at him.

"Hazel!" Elena shrilled, catching my attention. "Stop that! You're just using my brother for what you want, and that's not okay with me. I don't know why you think you like him, but stay away."

I snarled at her, animalistic. "You aren't the judge of me. You can't tell me what to do."

I think she saw something dangerous in the way I was suddenly towering over her, or the way sparks flew from my eyes. I had seen the same look in Damon's eyes before. The difference was that Elena wouldn't be able to melt me and force me into submission with those chocolaty brown orbs. I was going to win.

"I…" she stammered. "It's none of your business, Jeremy's not your family."

"I'm better family to him than you." I hissed. "What kind of family uses compulsion to get what they want?"

Elena paused, and guilt washed over me as her lower lip trembled and she stormed out as tears started to stream down her face. I glanced at Jeremy. "Sorry."

"That's okay. Harsh, but okay." He acknowledged after a moment. I grinned. "So, are you going to stay here? You should really get home."

"Because of Damon, yeah." I said. Damon would be furious; I had already lied to him about where I had been when I was checking up on Jeremy, and now I'd been missing for nearly an entire day. Of course, Elena was probably tattling to him right now. The very thought made me want to break something. "Will you be okay, Jeremy?"

"I will. I promise." I reached out and grasped my hand quickly, squeezing my fingers. The warmth from the fever was nearly gone.

"Goodbye." I said, turning to leave. Before I could chicken out I doubled back at vampire speed and kissed his head.

Then I ran out of the room and made sure to put as much distance from the hospital and myself as possible. I still had the eerie feeling that Klaus was hanging around there.

When I reached the boardinghouse and went inside the first thing I saw was Elena crying hysterically while Damon stood a few feet away, glaring at his glass of whiskey like it was the problem and not me.

When he saw me I was very suddenly pinned against the wall. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He growled, crushing my windpipe.

"I… Damon… stop!" I gasped out. "Please stop!"

"Fine." He let me go. "What on earth is wrong with you, Haze?"

"I didn't think it was right to send him away." I pouted. With Damon I had no chance of winning an argument. "It's a violation of someone's free choice."

"Since when has that mattered to you?" Damon asked. "You've compelled people before…. Right?"

"Only to keep Stella safe." I said. "And only when I absolutely had to. It's not right to force people to do whatever you want, you know. Jeremy's old enough to do whatever he wants. If he wants to stay and fight, that's his choice."

Elena approached me slowly, like a wounded animal taking another strike at its attacker. "I don't want him to die. He can't, not after Jenna."

"He won't." I stated. It wasn't speculation or a promise, it was a fact. "I won't let him die."

She sniffed, trying her best to look dejected and hurt. Damon's head focused in on her within seconds, and I saw that softness. I had seen it in Stefan, long ago, when he used to look at Stella. "Why? Why do you care?"

"That's not really the point." Damon said. "Are we going to compel him again, after he gets better?"

"Of course we are!" exclaimed Elena.

I shook my head. "No. I want him to stay, because I care about him and because I know if you compel him _again_ and he finds out, he'll hate you more than the last time."

I saw realization dawning in Elena's face, though she tried to deny it. "We have to make him leave."

"No!" I yelled. "You can't."

It was like that for a while: we screamed at each other, I made Elena cry at least five times, and in the end I wore her down until she agreed, then went to the hospital to visit Caroline, Caroline's Dad, and Jeremy. Damon confined me to the boardinghouse with the threat that if I left this time he would take away my bracelet so I'd be stuck there for as long as he wanted me to be stuck.

"It's the same either way, you know." I sulked, curling up on the couch with yet another book. My phone buzzed:

_Tell Damon to get to the hospital, he isn't answering his phone. Caroline's dad was murdered by the same person that has been killing everyone with stakes. He had vampire blood in his system… ~Elena_

I looked up to see Damon reading over my shoulder. "You going?" He was already gone by time I finished speaking, and I sighed.

It was another slow day. All I knew was that Caroline's dad decided to die, so Elena stayed with Caroline. Caroline didn't answer any of my texts, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have known what to say. _Sorry your dad is going to die? Sorry that Alaric's crazy girlfriend ruined this for you? Sorry that your life sucks because you got caught in the middle?_ I cried thinking about it. It had killed me inside when I had seen Father's and Mother's graves for the first time. As vampires Stella and I had known we couldn't just go back and act like everything was okay, so we stayed away from home so long we forgot about it until it was too late. It reminded me of Tuck Everlasting, when the people who "kidnapped" Winnie come back to her town to find that she's dead.

Later that night I also found out that Alaric had been attacked, and Elena had to kill him because she was supernatural.

"It's all so familiar." Damon was complaining. "I've seen this before."

"Because you're really old." I teased.

"Shut up." Was his halfhearted reply. "Say, have you seen Stella anywhere? Ever since Caroline's breakdown at the hospital when her dad was admitted she just vanished."

Stella's POV

I watched carefully from the rock doorway as Bonnie and her Mom chanted. Caroline had been so spooked by the attack on her dad, plus his death, so she made me promise to watch Bonnie and her Mom. Honestly, I couldn't blame her. I just didn't understand why everything awful kept happening to her when she wasn't hurting anyone.

The coffin was glowing, and sweat beaded both witches' foreheads. "Guys?" I ventured cautiously.

There was no reply. Instead, a bright, blindingly white flooded the room. It was so pure, so much stronger than sunlight, that I fell to the floor screaming as it burned into my skin like acid. When I opened my eyes I caught the image of a tall, serene woman in white.

Then I slid into the welcoming darkness.

**A/N: Not spellchecked, sorry.**


	8. Dangerous Liaisons

**A/N: So today in Spanish longblock our teacher was absent (YES!), which meant that everyone got to talk. Long story short, I told Kelly I would do another chapter of this. This one is not going to end with a cliffhanger. Anyway, the updating of this was delayed mostly because I went to my sister's book club and it was loud and crazy and yeah… but it was fun. I watched some hit someone else in the face at least ten times.**

**I have very violent friends.**

**So this is "Dangerous Liaisons" but with Stella and Hazel. I loved that episode… I have a soft spot for gorgeous clothes.**

Hazel's POV

Elena's house was becoming Damon's new hangout spot, which automatically meant that it was mine too, and I was sick of it.

Ever since my "stunt" with Jeremy, as Damon called it, I was still confined to the boardinghouse. As for Stella… I hadn't seen much of her. She had come home from the coffin-opening ceremony looking burned and terrified, then stayed holed up in her room. That meant that I had to come with Damon wherever he went. The worst part was that Jeremy was still in the hospital and I couldn't go see him.

Elena shot me a murderous look as she went to answer the door. She definitely wasn't over me un-compelling Jeremy, and she was very open about her feelings for me. She wouldn't actually talk to me, but kept making snarky comments about me to Damon and giving me dirty looks whenever she passed me.

"Oh, I get it." I said, rolling my eyes at her. "Seriously."

"Get what?" Elena said, finally deigning to speak to me.

"You hate me." I said, making each word long like I was sounding it out for a five-year-old. "It only took the first thousand death stares to figure that one out."

She snorted and turned her back on me, opening the door. I couldn't anyone there, but I did see what looked like a scrap of white paper on the ground.

I dashed over to her and read the words: _You are cordially invited to the Mikaelson family's ball. _

"Oooohh, a ball!" I said. She whipped around and snatched the letter out of my reach.

Elena stormed into the kitchen, holding out the invitation for Damon to see. "Look at this?"

"The Mikaelson's are Klaus's family, right?" he asked. I nodded. "You can't go."

"What?" exclaimed Elena, now angry at him instead of me. "Why not? We know that Esther got out of the coffin when Bonnie and her mom freed her, and I need to talk to her. Clearly if Klaus isn't dead it's because of her. His siblings should have ripped him to pieces."

"Amen to that." I interjected happily. Two pairs of eyes shot to me and frowned. "Sorry."

"I'll go ask mama witch about Klaus, and you can—no, _will_—stay here with Hazel." Damon said. He had the same exact expression as when he had told me to stay in the boardinghouse. With Elena, however, I knew it would be harder to make her actually obey.

"No!" Elena persisted. "I'll be safe enough. It's not like she'd want to kill me."

I laughed. "Yes, because there aren't _that_ many people that just randomly want to kill you."

"Shut up, Hazel." Damon said, sounding a lot like himself, when we used to run races from the barn to the house and I would win. "You can't go, Elena, because there are a million reason why she would want you dead. Who knows, maybe she's on Klaus's side."

"He doesn't want me dead, I can make him hybrids."

"Fine, maybe she's not on his side and she wants to kill you so he can't make hybrids." Said Damon. "And if she is on his side she might want to help him kidnap you and lock you up as his human bloodbag."

"Exactly." I said, stepping next to Damon and mocking his serous look. When he looked at me sideways I backed away. "Geez. Tough room."

"You need a hobby." Elena said pointedly.

I finally gave up, going back to the living room and turning the TV on. My phone started to vibrate, so I checked it. Hopefully it was some interesting.

_Hey, the doctors say I'll be out soon. ~Jeremy_

_Good I miss you. ~Hazel_

_Oh really? ~Jeremy_

_Yes really. Your sister is driving me crazy, She hates my undead guts. ~Hazel_

_I'll be home soon, I promise. ~Jeremy_

I couldn't wait until he got back. Mean as it was, I couldn't wait to see the venomous look Elena would wear when I was kissing her brother.

Stella's POV

"It's beautiful." I breathed, watching as Caroline unfolded the shimmering blue dress that Klaus had given to her. It was gorgeous, with streaks of light and dark blue, wispy pieces of cloth that were as thin as scarves, and jewels covering the waist and chest.

"Are you going to the ball?" asked Caroline distractedly, turning the dress so the jewels caught the light. "I want to, and I want to wear this, but…"

"Klaus gave it to you." I finished. "I get it. Why does he like you so much anyway?"

She shrugged. "I think he's just screwing with my head since he can't get Tyler to go near me anymore. Either that, or he has a weird thing for girls nearly fours or five centuries younger than him."

"I wouldn't say _centuries_ younger…" I trailed off. I really did want to go to the ball, but I wasn't sure about anything except that I did not want to meet Esther. Whatever magic she had done as she left the cave had burned right through me, searing my skin and putting a terror into my heart that I couldn't shake.

"So are you going?" Caroline repeated impatiently. "Because if you are, I think I have the perfect dress for you."

"Oh really?"

"Yup."

She went to her closet and dug through what looked like a hundred dresses, bringing out one that was golden. The front had a thing gold material with flowers woven into it, and the skirt was layered in ruffles down one side. The whole dress seemed to glow.

"It's perfect." I gasped. "I couldn't—"

"Not the whole, "I'm sorry, I can't' speech." Said Caroline. "You are going, and you _are _going to ear this dress. Okay?"

"I… well, I guess…" I stammered. "But it's so soon. How will I get my hair done?"

"Umm, vampire speed? Duh."

I smiled. "I've never been good with hair, or makeup. If you haven't noticed I'm kind of permanently stuck at age 14, which kind if sucks."

"You'll look beautiful." Caroline ensured me. She took an arm in each hand and led my to a chair. "Just sit back, close you eyes, and I'll do the rest."

"I'm scaaaarrrrreeeedddd…." I whined, teasing.

"Baby."

The last thing I saw before I shut my eyes was Caroline coming at me with a maniacal expression and a tube of mascara.

Hazel's POV

I was rummaging through the boardinghouse's massive storage room, coming across the oddest clothes. "You're such a hoarder!" I yelled to Damon, who was upstairs getting ready. He had forbid Elena to go over and over until she finally agreed. Now he (and presumable Stefan) was going to go in her place.

I had been looking for a dress for the last hour and a half, but all I could find were Damon's "retro" clothes from some era where no one had any fashion sense.

Finally I came across what I had been looking for: a stately, deep blue dress. It was an older one, something I had planned to wear to my first ball as a woman (just an annoying Salvatore tradition). With a few adjustments I knew I could make it work.

**~VD~VD~VD~VD~**

Hours later I looked into a mirror, realizing just how right I had been. A few changes and it was perfect.

The dress was still deep blue, and strapless. Embroidered flowers edges the waits and trailed down the skirt in periwinkle blues and snowflake whites. The skirt itself was a deeper, velvety material, and it was held up in bunch with navy blue, bejeweled cloth roses and more embroidery.

"You look good in blue." Damon observed calmly. "Shall we?"

I rolled my eyes but took the arm he offered. "Whatever."

The Mikaelson's house was very impressive. A set of spiraling stairs allowed them to make a grand and stately entrance. They acted like they owned the town and that just being here should be an honor to all the guests. I snorted as Klaus said something extra pompous, and I could have sworn his eyes darted to me.

Not five minutes later I saw the doors open, and Elena walked in wearing a gorgeous gown that was black silk, covered in dark jewels from the waist up. Of course, she had come. She couldn't stay away from the danger.

Then Damon and Stefan were both at her side, each offering her an arm. It made me want to rip her throat out for a split second—the image reminded me so much of Katherine. Elena had her head held high, stately and queen-like, while both Stefan and Damon were practically drooling at her feet, In the end she took both of their arms and walked in with the two of them. I gagged and made my way into another room, hoping I could find Stella or Caroline.

Stella's POV

I stood close to Caroline, edging closer whenever I saw Esther drifting throughout the room to greet her guests. Caroline was flirting with some; it might have been Matt, but I wasn't sure. I was too busy making sure the Original witch didn't come murder me. I didn't know why, but I had a horrible feeling that I had seen something I really shouldn't have. I didn't know what the white, blinding light had meant or if it was evil, but I had a feeling that Bonnie and her mom hadn't seen it.

"Stella." A smooth, British voice said, pulling me from my world of nightmares. "You look stunning."

It was Klaus. I blushed and smiled. "Yeah? Caroline helped." I wasn't exactly sure why I was being so nice. He was gentle with Caroline, and he had saved, but that didn't make him not evil.

"You look older." He said.

It was true. Besides the already amazing dress, Caroline had covered my face in makeup until I didn't recognize myself. When I had looked in the mirror I hadn't seen the usual young face, framed with wild red curls that brought out my freckles. I saw a teenager of sixteen or seventeen, with a pale face that appeared to glow slightly, and hair that was elegantly twisted on the top of her head so that neat, silky strands fell around her face. She wasn't me, she was a golden goddess that was just inhabiting my body for the night.

"I guess." I mumbled.

He smiled. It wasn't the usual psychotic smile, but a genuine one. "I think the looks suits you. You are older than you appear to be."

I sighed. "You have no idea. I never wanted to be trapped at fourteen forever. Hazel is seventeen, so it's not so bad for her, but I'll never really be an adult. I'm just a dopey kid that doesn't know anything." That was what I had always been to Damon, anyway, and he still treated me the same way.

"No, you're not." Klaus said calmly. "I know people don't see you or know who you re, but it;' ly because you stay out of the spotlight. Hazel may be seventeen, but you have more maturity than she ever will. She's irrational, and she acts out of impulse."

I blushed again, even more so than the last time. "Thank you. It means a lot to me, because… I just wish someone would notice me without me having to jump up and down and wave my hands. It's like I don't even exist."

He nodded. "But you do."

"I do."

He looked around. "Have you, by any chance, seen Caroline?"

"No, sorry."

He sighed. "That's all right, I'll go look for her. I wanted to talk to her."

"Okay." I couldn't help but sigh inwardly as he left. Klaus was so understanding. I think that was why I wasn't afraid of him. He didn't see me as some kid that was a nuisance and existed simply to be ignored. Even though I knew I was probably some part in an intricate scheme to capture Elena or kill Damon and Stefan, I wanted to hold onto my friendship with Klaus.

It was the only one I had besides Caroline's.

Hazel's POV

It turned out to be the most boring dance I'd ever been to. It dragged on and on and _on_, and Damon disappeared somewhere with Stefan, so I had no one to talk to. The same happened with Stella; I could have sworn I saw her go outside with Caroline and Klaus, only to reappear moments later for Esther's toast.

When we got home I vaguely noticed a satisfied smile that graced Stella's face. She wouldn't say why, but something had made her very happy. It took a lot to make Stella happy.

"So?" I asked Damon and Elena when they entered. Stefan had already gone to sulk in hios room, for a reason unknown to the rest of us. "Anything weird happen while I was dying of boredom?"

Elena said, "There was this one thing that I did with Esther…"

**A/N: short and not spellchecked.**


	9. All My Children

**A/N: another chapter… yay! Hopefully this will help Kelly with her vampire withdrawal :)**

**By the way, this is short. You've been warned.**

Hazel's POV

I yawned, stretched, and rolled lazily out of my bed. It was morning. Last night had been the painfully boring, uneventful ball at the Original's house.

After Elena had explained the spell Esther wanted help with Stefan had gone to brood, Damon had gone to get drunk, and I had gone to bed. I wasn't sure what Stella was doing, but she had probably gone too bed as well.

I stretched again, reveling the felling of sunshine warming my back, pouring in from the window. When I had first become a vampire sunlight had been one of the things I missed desperately.

I donned a simple t-shirt that said, "Buffy staked Edward. The end." On it and a pair of cutoff jeans and headed downstairs, yawning all the way.

Downstairs there was a soft rustling noise and my head shot up just in time to see a half-dressed Rebekah grumbling to herself and making her way to the door. "Umm…"

"Oh, shut up." She snapped. "You never even saw me here, got it?"

"Sure, whatever." I said. I knew it was unwise to annoy her, but she didn't seem to care. When she vanished I raced into Damon's room and jumped on his bed, jarring him awake.

"Wha—" he sat up straight. "Rebekah?"

"No, Hazel here." I said. I waved my hand in front of his face. "Hi. May I just ask you what the hell you think you're doing sacking up with an Original, especially her?"

"No, you may not."

I frowned. "Too bad, because I just did."

"Well, you aren't getting an answer." He replied, sliding out of bed and heading to the closet for a shirt.

"Not fair." I whined, casting pouty eyes at him. He blatantly ignored them. "Oh, come on, Damon! Fair's fair. You sleep with an Original, you pay the price. Why would yo ever do something like that?"

"You know why." He said.

"What, you're jealous of Stefan because Elena still wants him back, because she still has faith in him? Suck it up." I said. Outside I could have sworn I heard Elena's voice.

He threw a shirt at my head. "There's more than that. Besides, Rebekah seemed willing enough."

"Oh, because _that _makes it okay." I snarked. When would he learn?

He growled, fangs sliding out as he whipped around to face me. "I don't want to talk about it, Haze. Go annoy your sister, okay?"

"Fine." I grumbled, jumping off the bed. I looked out the window again and nearly did a double-take; Elena _was_ outside, and she appeared to be yelling at Rebekah. "Ummm… Damon?"

"What?"

I pointed. "Seems like Elena approves even less than I do."

He muttered a few curses even I hadn't heard before, finished dressing, and started down the stairs. I was right behind him and I could hear Elena's shrill complaints.

"Damon, what is wrong with you?" she said. "Rebekah? You had to sleep with her?"

Damon cringed at her tone. "No, that's not—"

"Why? Do you want to end up dead? Do you actually have a death wish?" she asked.

"Elena, we were both drunk, and not thinking, and—"

"You decided it would be a good idea to bang Klaus's sister? What, so now she's on our side?" she yelled. I couldn't believe it, but she sounded jealous.

Damon sighed, shoulders slumping dejectedly. "It's not _like _that, Elena. I made a very bad decision and it won't happen ever again, okay?"

Her eyes were still smoldering as though she could incinerate him on the spot. "Fine. Anyway, I came to tell you that I don't want to help Esther with the rest of the spell. You know, the one to kill all the Originals."

"Ad why wouldn't you want to do that?" asked Damon. I heard a soft rustle and saw Stella at the top of the stairs.

"Because they all have to die, and Elijah doesn't deserve said." Elena said. Of course she would veto that idea right away. She was to noble and goody-goody to help kill someone that had saved her before.

"She's right." Stella offered quietly. "They're not all evil… I don't know if Klaus is that bad…"

"Oh, he is." I said. "He likes screwing with people's heads."

She lowered her head, oddly sad. Why did she care about the Originals? I made a mental note to ask her where she'd been going off to while I had been with Jeremy.

"But Elijah doesn't deserve to do when he hasn't done anything." Elena persisted. "Okay, so maybe he did help Klaus get away, but he couldn't really help that. Klaus manipulated him into thinking he'd get his family. I would have done the same thing if I could have my parents back."

Damon started to protest but I cut him off before he could say something he would regret. "Look, Elena, I know that you think he's all noble and honorable, which he probably is, but there's nothing you can do. Esther only needed your blood, right? She had that now and there's no way you could undo what she's already done. You might as well get Elijah a goodbye present and get over it. You can't save everyone."

Elena met my gaze defiantly, clearly under the impression that she could. I returned the icy look calmly.

"I just don't think it's right…" she started, glancing at Damon for support. "He helped me, and I owe him."

I laughed. "Sure you do. Just pay him back in heaven or something. That's assuming he makes it there, of course."

"Oh my God." Damon groaned. "You are not helping."

"Not trying to."

Elena made a little huffing noise. "You're both maddening. You could be twin, if you were both boys or both girls."

"Ew, no thank you." I edged away from Damon. "there is no _way_ I would ever be a guy."

"Speak for yourself." He countered. "Now, since Klaus gets to die today, don't you think that we should go and celebrate?"

Elena said, "No."

"Exactly!" he said, like she had yelled "YES!" instead of no. "We should have a party at the Grill. We can invite everyone in Mystic Falls, so they'll be out of the way of this big, fancy spell Esther's doing."

"I guess…" Elena was clearly caving in to the idea.

"It's settled." Damon turned to me. "Go compel the guy there to let us have the party and get lots of alcohol."

"I like this idea." I said. "Can I get drunk?"

Elena looked horrified. "You're only sixteen, right?"

"Seventeen."

"Damon!" she protested.

"She can compel the bartender if she wants, I don't care." Said Damon. "I mean, technically she's around two hundred years old. It's not illegal."

"Yeah, it's not illegal." I mimicked Damon. "It already suck that I'm stuck at this age, I should be able to drink."

Elena left it at that and left, saying she would be at the Grill around eight. We decided that would be the time of the party.

I was lazy the whole day. I soaked in a bayberry-scented bath—it was an old fragrance and I loved it—and the whole time I wondered if Jeremy would be at the party. I hoped so. I hadn't seen him in the last few days and I desperately missed him. Elena had been very firm about Damon keeping me away from her house so she always came to the boardinghouse to talk to him. At a party she wouldn't be able to tell me to get away from her brother as easily, and that was exactly what I wanted.

After I dried off I decided to wear a soft blue dress that ended somewhere between my knees and my hips. It was the same electric blue of my eyes, making them brighter. I left my hair hanging in straight black waves. The overall affect actually looked good, and I was sure if Jeremy was there I might get to kiss him for once.

When I finally reached the Grill it was already crowded, and I spotted Jeremy at a table with Elena and Damon. _Crap._ I walked over on the pretense of wanting to sit next to Damon. Jeremy winked at me when I say down, mouthing, "You look great" to me when Elena wasn't watching. I smiled.

"So, you finally decided to show up?" asked Damon. I nodded. "This is fun. Who's up for a drink?"

Elena shot him a withering stare. "Sorry. I'll go get drunk by myself."

I followed him, casually motioning to Jeremy, who followed me. Elena looked highly disapproving but Caroline stepped into her line of view before she could see where Jeremy was going. I forced him onto a seat at the bar next to me, laughing just because was near me.

"I miss some joke?" he asked, perplexed.

"Nope. Up for a drink?"

He was hesitant. "I don't know…"

"C'mon, a few drinks won't hurt you." I pleaded. Elena came over and sat next to Damon effectively silencing Jeremy.

"You could use a drink too, you know." Damon said to her. "You're too uptight."

"Am not." She said, pouting. "And you're stupid, so… ha."

"Come on, Elena, a few drinks won't hurt you." said Damon, repeating my exact words.

She gave in at last, letting rebellion take over as she drank the glass of something unknown that he gave her in one gulp. "Fine."

I managed to get the bartender to give Jeremy and I drinks too, and by then Elena was to drunk to care. Her eyes were glazed over, and she kept talking to Damon about nonsense and Stefan.

"He just got me, you know?" she slurred, leaning her head on the bar counter. "And now he wants nothing to do with me."

"Isn't that always the way." Damon said. He downed another shot.

"They… are so… _drunk._" Jeremy said. He laughed.

I giggled. "You are drunk, mister, they're just out of it."

"You're pretty." He said, propping his head up with his hands and ogling my dress in a manner that made me hit him.

"Hey! What was that for? Why would you do that?"

"Don't be a disgusting drunk." I said.

His eyes widened. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Your dress is just all shimmery, like your eyes. I like you eyes."

I relaxed. "Oh, okay."

"You want to go somewhere else?" he asked. "I shouldn't have anymore drinks."

"You shouldn't." I agreed. A plan started to form in my mind. "How about we head outside for some air?"

"Yeah."

I had to half carry him out, past a madly giggling Elena, but we made it, and found a nice, empty bench. We sat there. I smiled at the way he would look at me and then look away when I looked at him. It was so romance novel-esque I started to laugh at the cheesiness of it all.

"What?"

I grinned. "You, me, some alcohol and the stars… I've never been this normal in my life."

"Oh." Jeremy regarded me with serious expression. "Do you like it?"

"I love it."

Before he could say another thing I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. His breath tasted like alcohol, spurring me forward, the way he smelled and how his hands left trails of fire at my waist only making the feeling even headier. I let him take the lead, tugging at my hair while I ran my finger through the short strands on his head.

"What the hell?"

I jumped back to see Bonnie standing there. "Oh."

She hadn't said it, though. Elena was standing next to her, pure horror written all over her face. Bonnie, on the other hand, looked grief stricken.

"What happened?" I asked Bonnie, pointedly ignoring Elena.

Bonnie gulped. "Mom ands I were helping with Esther's spell, but I guess Klaus threatened to hurt Elena because Stefan t-turned my Mom to stop the ritual." She started to cry. "She's a vampire."

**A/N: No, in this version Elena didn't get kidnapped.**


	10. 1912

**A/N: Yeah. New chapter.**

**HUNGER GAMES COMES OUT THIS FRIDAY! And I'll be seeing it on the 31****st****… sigh…**

**This isn't spellchecked, as usual, and it's short and random and yeah… sorry…**

Hazel's POV

So much had happened in the last few hours that my head was spinning.

After Bonnie had shown up at the Grill she had explained how she and her mother had gone to help with a ritual to kill the Originals, except that it had gone wrong and Stefan had turned her mother. He had done it because Elijah had been outside the bar waiting to grab Elena if Stefan didn't stop the ritual.

Caroline had taken Bonnie's mother home, and I could only imagine what she was going through. From what Damon said Bonnie wanted nothing more than to stay away from vampires. Now her mother was one.

As for Jeremy, he had gone home with Elena. She had been fuming, but as soon as she heard about Bonnie's mom she suddenly forgot what I'd been doing with Jeremy. I did feel guilty about kissing Jeremy, but only because I should have realized the Originals would pull something to stop the ritual.

I rolled over in bed, acutely aware of how empty it was. I remembered when I'd laid in bed with Jeremy, watching him from across the void of white sheets while he'd been burning a fever. I vaguely wondered if I should go see him but decided not to. Elena was angry enough. Just because I wasn't afraid of her didn't mean she couldn't influence Damon to keep me locked up in the cellar if I kept going after Jeremy. I would take it slow-ish, and try to prove to her that I wouldn't hurt him… maybe someday I could date him without her glaring every other minute.

Eventually I fell asleep, and when I woke it was because Damon was shaking me. "What?" I asked, blearily rubbing my eyes. "Did you do it with Rebekah again or something?"

"No." he snapped. "Alaric's in jail, apparently Meredith Fell found him rummaging through her stuff and he had a weapon. It was from her house, which makes me wonder exactly what she's up to."

"So do we have to pay bail?" I asked, slipping out of under the covers and digging through my closet.

Damon shook his head. He started towards the door but stopped just as he was about to leave. "I was actually wondering if you could go and stay with Elena…?"

I dropped an armload of shirts. "Excuse me?"

"Please?" he said. "She was upset when she called me, and I have he feeling that she'll do anything to prove Alaric is innocent."

"Like what?" I had a few good ideas already, but I wanted to hear some of his.

He shrugged. "Just go, okay?"

"Fine."

There was a good side to the arrangement; I got to see Jeremy and Elena couldn't complain because Damon had sent me.

I dressed quickly and ran most of the way to Elena's, only stopping when I reached the more populated section of the neighborhood. Damon would have my head on a platter if someone caught me super-speed running.

Knocking at the door, I froze with my hands behind my back, a fake and mocking smile plastered on my face. Elena answered, looking disgusted and irrigated. "No." she slammed the door.

I frowned and knocked again. "Open up!"

Elena opened the door again, only allowing enough room to peer around the edge and look at me. "What?"

"Damon sent me to make sure you don't do anything detrimental."

"Define 'detrimental'." At least she hadn't slammed the door.

"Throwing a can of gasoline and some matches into Meredith Fell's window." I suggested cheerfully. "Which, by the way, is exactly what I wish I was doing right now."

"Fine." Elena said, finally stepping out of the way and letting me inside. "I have to leave soon. Matt was going to go jogging with me."

"Exercise." I flopped onto the couch. "Bleh."

She rolled her eyes and left. It occurred to me that maybe if I hadn't made so many bad impressions on her all at once I might have been better friends with her. Then again, wishing for things I couldn't change was pointless.

My day looked a whole lot better when Jeremy came down the stairs a few minutes later. I smiled as brightly as I could, waving him over. "Hey!"

He looked hung over. "Hey."

"You okay?"

He groaned and slumped onto the couch next to me. "Nope. How do you look so alive and completely well?"

"Vampires don't get drunk easily." I said. "Besides, you did have a _lot_."

"Don't remind me." He said, pressing his hands over his ears. "My head is pounding."

Elena ran by in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. "I'll be back later!"

"Don't shout!" Jeremy whined, diving under a couch cushion. "It huuuuurrrrtttttttttssssssss!"

"C'mon." I pulled him out when I was sure she was gone. "So, about last night…"

"Yeah, what happened?" he asked. "After we left the Grill and went outside everything kind of blurs together. I know Bonnie was there… or here… she was somewhere at some point."

He didn't _remember_? "You don't _remember_?" I shrieked. He pulled the cushion back over his head. "Sorry."

"What did I do?" he asked. He looked wary, like he expected that I would tell him something awful.

I managed to hold back my laughter. "Well, we were talking and…"

"What did I do?" he asked, desperate. I giggled. "Stop it! Did I throw up or something?"

Cute as it was to torture him, I relented. "We kissed. And by 'kissed' I mean a full-on lip-lock. I personally think it could have been so much better if Elena hadn't interrupted."

He sighed with relief. "Well, I know why she was giving me the evil eye this morning."

"That was it. Since she's already mad…" I quirked my eyebrows.

"I like the way you think, Salvatore."

I couldn't help the small and annoyingly girly giggle that escaped my mouth when Jeremy grabbed me around the waist. His fingers twined in my hair, gently pulling my face so that it was inches away from mine.

The next five minutes was spent very productively, but Elena managed to butt in again, coming home early. Matt was with her. He glanced skeptically at Jeremy's rumpled shirt and my tangled hair and just shrugged. Elena glared daggers but said nothing.

"So, anyone up for breaking into Meredith Fell's house?" Elena asked after getting a cup of water.

I yawned. "Why?" I glanced at Jeremy, wondering why he didn't look more surprised.

She said, "I have to know what she's up to, and who else is better to be a bodyguard than a vampire?"

"I guess I could help, if you really think you need me." I said. She cast a stiff smile at me. "Surprised that I can be helpful?"

"No, it's just that you remind me of Damon when I first met him." She said. "he was very sarcastic, and always defensive."

I casually stretched, placing mu hand on top of Jeremy's and weaving my fingers through his. He tightened his grip on my hand. "He's better now."

"Let's hoe you get 'better' too." Elena said, using air quotes. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yes." I jumped up and grabbed my jacket from the couch. I smiled sweetly at Jeremy. "See you later?"

"Obviously."

I took satisfaction in Elena's annoyance and skipped out the door. Once we hit the sidewalk Matt and Elena took off, apparently trying to get in some extra running. They were becoming regular fanatic about it.

After considering it I took off after them. It wasn't like running was hard; I could have gone so much faster. The pace I was at, which had me catching up to them in moments, was barely more than a brisk walk. As I passed them I heard Elena's breathing become faster. Evidently she was trying to beat me.

It became a race as we neared Meredith's house. I let her just barely stay next to me, speeding up every now and then and grinning as she would start panting, trying to accelerate. Yes, it was mean, but I couldn't help it. Poor Matt was about ten feet behind us. I had to give it to Elena. She really wanted to win, and she was doing fairly well considering how fast I was going.

Finally I saw Meredith's house in the distance and sped up, leaving Elena behind. I won by several feet. Elena came up next to me and skidded to a stop, gasping for lungfuls of air as she collapsed on the ground.

Matt staggered his way over to us. "You… are… _insane_…" he panted. I smirked.

"I'm a good runner."

"You have an advantage." Elena wheezed. "I could beat you if you were human."

She and Matt took a few minutes to recover before we went to the door and knocked. When we broke in—which meant I crushed the doorknob in my fist—we found what appeared to be a normal house. It was furnished sparsely. Obviously Meredith spent a lot of time at the hospital.

"Boring." I sing-songed, earning two "Shhhhhhhhhs" from Elena and Matt. "What? Clearly she has no social life."

I left them to dig through her closet, humming the song that had been on my mind for the longest time. "Violated, so degraded, the show has just begun…"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Elena hissed. "DO you have to do that?"

I raised my voice. I actually did have a decent singing voice, which came from hundreds of years of practice. "Dominated by what you hated, this will make you ultra numb—"

As I finsished the last verse I heard shoes clicking on the driveway. By my black expression Elena realized what was happening. "In!" She ordered, pulling Matt and I into the closet.

I shivered in the confined quarters, carefully measuring how close she was to the door. I heard her walk to the counter, put something down, and then walk away. It was too easy… she would just leave? I'd crushed her doorknob, she had to have seen that.

Elena raised her eyebrows. "Should we make a run for it?" she whispered.

I shut my eyes, holding a finger to my lips. After a second or two of complete concentration my eyes shot open and I shook my head. "I can hear her breathing outside the door." I whispered so quietly it was more like I was mouthing the words. I gestured at the small opening in the wall where Elena and Matt had found the box. "Can you fit?"

Unfortunately Meredith threw the door open before we could crawl in.

**O.o.O.o.O.**

Hours later Damon was walking me home from the police station, where Elena, Matt, and I had all been taken. When Meredith had found us I had thought she might shoot us, but instead she called Sherriff Forbes.

"Why did you help them?" Damon was asking. He'd been interrogating me for the past hour. "You were supposed to keep her out of trouble."

"I did!" I argued, scrolling through my list of missed texts to see if Jeremy had texted me. "The original plan was sto throw some gasoline around her house and get matches—"

"Please stop there." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his finger. "Please."

"Okay." I noticed a text from Jeremy. When I opened it and read it I couldn't do much more than stare.

_Dr. Fell came over, and she and Elena both think that Alaric's ring has done something to him. They think that… he is who's been murdering everyone. ~Jeremy._

**A/N: And now it's time to go watch Suburgatory. Goodnight!**


	11. Break On Through

**A/N: So… new chapter. Whoop. I'm on Benadryl right now 'cause of allergies so if anything is incoherent or misspelled or anything, you know why.**

**Edit: Okay so I wrote that like and hour ago and then tried to sleep but my sister cat would not SHUT UP. I am so tired right now that I will start crying if this takes me more than an hour…. You've been warned. This is basically a filler chapter. Also, keep in mind that since this story has no real plotline I just write Hazel and Stella into it.**

Hazel's POV

It was dark. I kept rolling around in my bed but I just couldn't sleep.

SO Alaric was evil, and he and Jeremy were in the same house. It wasn't like it was unsafe, right? Of course, if I had to even ask myself that it probably meant that he wasn't.

Though so many things were happening at once it felt like I was always stuck at the boardinghouse. As the sun rose and I finally ventured out of bed Damon made me stay there. He said he had a fundraiser thing for Wickery bridge to go to, and that he had to go talk to Rebekah.

As for Stella…. She was a in a weird mood. The last few days she'd just stayed curled up on the couch with a book, snapping at anyone who mentioned the Originals or mentioned killing them.

"Still reading?" I asked, walking in sometime in the afternoon. I'd spent a very happy day with Jeremy outside on one of those nice marble benches, but he'd had to go.

"Mmm-hmmm." Stella mumbled. "Now go away, I'm busy. By the way, Damon's back."

I could have sworn I'd heard noises upstairs for hours, but I hadn't bothered to investigate.

I made my way up the stairs, waking on tip-toes to Damon's bedroom. When I peeked in the first thing I saw was a blond head in Damon's bed. "You did not fall of the Rebekah wagon again." I said, adding a few choice swears. She seemed to be asleep, so I snuck in.

There was some sort of noise coming from the bathroom, so I ventured further. At first I thought it was just Damon so I stepped inside and said, "I can't believe you let Rebekah into the house again, Elena is going to—"

But Damon was in the shower with someone who had red hairs, and bother were very very naked. They were kissing, and their hands were roaming southward, especially Damon's—

"EW!" I screamed. "NONONONONONONONONONONO!"

Damon and the red-haired woman jumped away from each other. "What the hell, Hazel?"

"So _wrong_!" I screeched. "You were—and then she was—and then you—OHMYGOD NO!"

"Oh, come on, Hazel. I'm a grown man, I can do whatever I want without asking you."

"NO." I repeated, trying to keep my eyes averted. "Why on earth would you do something like this? I have to SLEEP in this house, thank you every much. Noisy vamp threesomes aren't going to help with that, you know."

"Threesomes?" Damon and the red-haired girl both looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Ummm…" I gaped at him. "Rebekah's naked in you bed and this person's naked in your shower? By the way, get decent, will you?"

"I'm Sage." Said the woman. "And we weren't…. doing anything."

"Oh, what: friends make out naked in showers now? Is that a thing?" I asked.

Sage grabbed a towel from the counter by the sink and quickly wrapped herself with it, Damon doing the same moments later. "No, it's not. We weren't going to do anything, though. Besides, I have to leave."

"You're not one to judge, anyway." Damon pointed out. "Yu and Jeremy were glued to each other all afternoon."

I flushed. "Whatever! We weren't naked, for one, so… we win. Okay, there might have been some minor groping, but at least I'm not crazy like you are!"

He rolled his eyes. "Look, I should go. Believe it or not, there might be a way we can stop Klaus."

"By sleeping with his sister?"

"Exactly."

Later Damon explained the memory thing that Sage had to me, though it sounded suspicious. I'd never heard of a vampire power like it, but I was glad Damon had been able to find and salvage the sign. Maybe there was use for psychopathic Alaric after all.

**A/N: It's awful and at this point I couldn't care less. Goodnight.**


	12. The Murder Of One

**A/N: Hi.**

Hazel's POV

By my usual standards, today was a very good day. I was out of Mystic Falls, in the sunshine, and I was currently seated on a horse. That was something I hadn't done for a long time.

It had started that morning when I'd woken up. Damon had left at five-thirty in the morning, saying that he had to go do something with Alaric and Stefan. By default I'd pestered him about it and begged him to let me come. After all the Sage and Rebekah drama AND getting the white oak sign I wanted to actually be included in all of his complicated plans.

Then he had done the most unusual and un-Damon-like thing since I had come to Mystic Falls; he told me I could take his car, go get Jeremy, and check out the stables that were outside of Mystic Falls. Apparently they were nice, and the fields there reminded him of where he and I used to ride.

He was right, too. Little wildflowers dotted the field, bright and vibrant with their yellows, baby blues, and light pinks. The whole place was so perfect and picturesque that it almost looked fake, like someone had taken a snapshot of that old field and then painted the colors to make them look brighter. A low stone wall surrounded the place. I was tempted to just urge my horse forward and jump the wall, to run and run until I had to get off and run myself.

I turned my head, looking back at Jeremy. He was struggling to stay on his dark chestnut, yelping and clinging to the reins every time the poor horse tried to move. Clearly he'd never been on a horse. I didn't care since it was probably the most endearing thing I had ever seen.

My horse was a beautiful palomino names Missy. I wasn't a fan of the name, but to each his own. Missy was a darling, quiet and gentle. I was wondering if I should have let Jeremy ride Missy instead. His horse, Paladin, was a little wilder and more skittish than Missy.

"Hey, amateur!" I called back. He glanced up for a second before leaning forward again as Paladin shifted.

"What?"

"You ever going to catch up?" I teased. "I thought we could go over to the edge of the field and have some lunch."

"You brought food?" it was hilarious how fast his head shot up.

I laughed. "Duh. So, are you in, or would you rather stay and continue harassing Paladin?"

"Coming."

It took him a while, but with coaching and coaxing (and holding a sandwich out in front of me so he'd come closer) I convinced Jeremy that Paladin was _not _trying to throw him off, but actually trying to make sure he didn't fall off. Once he was close enough I took the reins and led Paladin from my perch on top of Missy.

"This is nice." He said, leaning back against the wall and keeping an eye on Paladin. "I almost never go anywhere outside of Mystic Falls."

"Me either." I said. "Well, not since I came back."

He smiled, trying to be causal as he slid his arm around my shoulders. "Yeah, when did you get here? I just remember you showing up at our doorstep one day, with Stella."

"Yeah." I said. I could still remember that night. "Two days before we came here I had been talking to this man who keeps track of vampires. I wanted to get in touch with Katherine, mostly because I felt like I deserved some explanations." He opened his mouth to interrupt. "Long story, no time now. Anyway, he couldn't find Katherine, but he mentioned knowing about two other Salvatores. When I realized it was Damon and Stefan Stella and I came to Mystic Falls as soon as possible. The first glimpse I got of Damon was when he was kissing Elena."

"What?" Jeremy said, jerking away from me and staring in surprise. "Wait, WHAT?"

"You didn't know about that?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't. Are they… together?"

"Nope." I said. "I guess it was a one-time thing. All I know is I thought it was Katherine and I ended up slapping him."

Jeremy couldn't help but laugh at that. "Nice."

"Mmmm, definitely. I'd always wanted to do that, too."

After that the conversation drifted off onto the more random subjects of TV shows and the possibility of getting a pet, then into a peaceful silence. I curled into Jeremy side, yawning. For all I knew Damon was probably concocting some elaborate plan to murder the Originals with the white oak, but I didn't care. This was so much better than beating up other vampires.

My eyelids fluttered open when I heard the soft tapping of cellphone keys. I could see some man seated on the stone wall about twenty feet away, causally texting. He was familiar, though I couldn't place who he was other than he'd been in Mystic Falls.

"Check out the weirdo." I whispered to Jeremy. "Is it just me or does it look like he's filming us with that thing right now?"

**O.o.O.o.O**

Bonnie shivered, staring at the screen of Klaus's phone. It showed a picture-perfect field with a stone wall, Jeremy and Hazel curled up together. Hazel opened her eyes and smiled, whispering something to Jeremy. A tear trickled down Bonnie's face.

"I'll do it."

**O.o.O.o.O.**

"You're paranoid." Jeremy said. "He's just reading something or taking pictures of the horses."

"No, he's not." I said. Panic was creeping into my chest. "I've seen him before. I don't know who he is, but I think we should leave."

Jeremy protested, but I dragged him up and managed to haul him onto Paladin. When it was clear that wouldn't work I made him get up on Missy and ride her instead.

Paladin was much stronger and fiercer than Missy, I could feel it in the way he shifted restlessly beneath me. It was probably because of the fear that threatened to strangle me, but I knew it was also out of his desire to run. "You think you can gallop on her?" I asked Jeremy. He looked much more comfortable on Missy.

"I could try." He said. "You'll probably leave me in the dust on Paladin."

"Never." I promised. "Ready? Okay… go!"

I glanced back as I dug my heels into Paladin. The man seemed disappointed but disinterested in following.

Paladin was just as fast as Bessie had been. He cleared the entire field in only four minutes, Jeremy close behind. I made sure to check that he was still following me.

When we reached the stables I cleaned both horses and hurriedly got Jeremy in the car. Again, the stranger was nowhere in sight, but it made me feel sick at the idea that someone might try to kill Jeremy. If I died it wouldn't matter, because I wouldn't care. If Jeremy died I would be alone.

When we reached Mystic Falls it was dark, and I immediately headed to the boardinghouse. "Feel like staying the night?" I asked. "After all, you need protection of someone is stalking you again."

"Uh-huh." He said. He could tell how scared I was but went along with my light banter. "Sure, sure."

When we walked in through the _smashed-in _door I saw Caroline slowly getting to her feet with Stella's help, Elena staring in horror, and Stefan brushing off his clothes.. On the floor I saw Sage's body along with the body of some random vampire.

"So you were creeped out by the threesome thing too?" I asked. Stefan glared.

"Ummm…" Jeremy just looked confused. "Threesome?"

"Nothing." I said.

"They just died." Stella said. "She was going to kill Stefan and then she was dead."

"Faster than a werewolf bite could kill." Stefan mumbled.

Elena nodded. "Maybe it's some sort of vampire sickness?"

"No, it can't be."

It didn't take long for everyone to realize that killing an Original—clearly I had missed a lot—would kill their entire line. Everyone that Finn had ever sired died. In my mind I was imagining hundreds and hundreds of vampires around the world dropping like flies. This would be hard for news reporters to explain.

Jeremy, still processing the idea, said, "So whoever sired Rose sire Katherine sired Hazel? Hazel could _die_?"

"No duh." I said. "Of course I could."

Stefan said, "Look, this is fun, but I have to go get Damon."

"Ummm…. What?" I asked.

"He may have been kidnapped by Rebekah." Elena explained sheepishly. "But someone didn't want to get him until we murdered an Original."

I glared at Stefan. "Of course they didn't."

"I'll trade the stakes for him." Stefan said. "Well, some of them. Maybe if the Originals feel like they're safe again we can find a plan that will kill them without killing us."

"I guess." I said. Already I was feeling so unenthusiastic about this "kill and Original, kill their line" idea. It bothered me more and more as I sat by the fire with Jeremy. Basically it meant that if Klaus had sired Rose, all of the Salvatores would die. Caroline would die too, and Tyler would die if Klaus was killed. Every vampire in the whole world would die if all the Originals did.

I was starting to wonder if that would be such a bad thing.


	13. Heart Of Darkness

**A/N: Can I write this in an hour? Let's hope so. Just so you know, it won't be spellchecked. Or checked in general.**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!**

Hazel's POV

When I woke that morning I stretched my arms out about two inches before they hit something that crinkled. "Hello?"

I leapt out of bed, fully prepared to deal with any attack, but instead I saw a package wrapped with a silky red ribbon. Of course; it was my birthday! I couldn't believe that I'd forgotten.

I knew that for a lot of people—Damon and Stella included—birthdays were just a reminder that they were vampires and that they would never change. Most vampires forgot about their birthday after a few hundred years, too occupied with killing. I knew that Caroline had been so upset about her birthday that she had a "funeral" instead.

In my opinion it was morbid to think like that. What wasn't there to like about birthdays? It was a day to say, "Today I was born, which was a very awesome day for the world." or something along the lines of that. Either way, I got presents.

The present on my bed was from Damon and Stella. I had a feeling Stella had bought it and Damon had merely signed his name. When I opened it I saw a beautiful drawing of a field full of horses, just like the one at home. Where had they gotten it? I knew for a fact that Damon and Stella had no artistic talent. Stella was musically inclined, but she couldn't draw for her life, and neither could Damon.

I pulled on a light blue summer dress despite the chill in the air, feeling festive. When I went downstairs Stella was curled up on the couch, nose buried in a book. When she saw me she smiled. "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you!" I said. I twirled around a few times to show off my dress before I realized how girlish I looked, and then I stopped immediately. "Where did you get the drawing you gave me? It's absolutely stunning, it looks exactly like home."

Stella shrugged. "I had a friend draw it for me."

"A friend?" I made my way over to the couch and leaned over her shoulder to read her book. "Ooooooh, a romantic friend?"

"No!" Stella said. She hit me with the book until I retreated. "Just a friend, geez. Go find your boyfriend or something, I'm reading."

I pouted, but to no avail. When Damon didn't show up I ended going to Jeremy's school.

It was the first time I'd really been there. Obviously I had no reason to go, since I'd been to school several times over the years and I'd never enjoyed it. I wasn't the type that would just keep going school over and over, getting a bazillion college degrees or high school diplomas. I knew some vampires were into that kind of thing, but it was mostly the geeky ones who'd never had that many friends to start with.

When I spotted him I waved my arms in wild arcs, yelling, "Jeremy! Hey, Jeremy!" I saw Elena standing next to Bonnie a few feet away from Jeremy, rolling her eyes when she saw me. Jeremy ignored her and walked over to me, embracing me and kissing me breathless.

"Hey, birthday girl." He said. I blushed when he took off his jacket and gave it to me. "Why are you wearing a summer dress?"

"I wanted to…?"

"Fair enough." He said, pulling a tiny wrapped gift out of his pocket. "Here, happy birthday. I hope you like it."

I took the tiny box, wrapped in a dark blue paper with a gold bow. When the paper was pulled off and the box opened, it revealed a tiny lion pendant on a gold chain. I gasped. It was gorgeous. I could see the lion's eyes were tiny rubies that glinted when I tilted the box. "I love it."

"I thought you might." He said, though it sounded like he'd been unsure that I would like it. "It's supposed to stand for courage."

"What, you think I lack courage?' I teased.

He laughed. "No, you have too much for your own good."

I went to his first three classes, compelling the teachers who protested to let me stay. They were as mind-numbingly dull as the other, but when we reached his fourth period English it got interesting.

"Shakespeare is dull." I complained. Jeremy was reading over several sonnets by Shakespeare, and as far as I was concerned Shakespeare had a weird way of expressing his love. Unless his wife and/or lover was really smart, she probably would be as in-the-dark as I was.

"Try this one." Jeremy said, pushing the book to me.

_Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,_

_As, to behold desert a beggar born,_

_And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,_

_And purest faith unhappily forsworn,_

_And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,_

_And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,_

_And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,_

_And strength by limping sway disabled_

_And art made tongue-tied by authority,_

_And folly doctor-like controlling skill,_

_And simple truth miscall'd simplicity_

_And captive good attending captain ill:_

_Tired with all these, from these I would be gone,_

_Save that, to die, I leave my love alone_

"Well?" Jeremy asked, watching me as I finished reading.

"It sounded like a list of bad things." I said grumpily, shoving the book back. "He's a pessimist. I get it, Shakespeare, the world is awful and you want to die."

Jeremy laughed at me, making me frown until my eyebrows crinkled. "No, it's not about that." He said. "It's about love."

"No it's not, you sicko."

"It is." He said patiently. "yes, in the beginning he's listing all the things wrong with the world, and yes, he does wish he could leave them and just die. _However_, at the end he says 'Tired with all these, from these I would be gone/Save that, to die, I leave my love alone'. What do you think that means?"

I shrugged. "He's going to die and it really sucks for his wife?"

"No." Jeremy said. "What he's saying is that even though the world is a terrible place and he'd rather be dead, he can't die because it means he'd had to eave his true love alone. She's enough to keep him going despite everything."

"That was actually really deep." I said. A soft smile traced my lips. "And really sweet."

He looked pleased. "Well, I'm glad I could teach you something."

After that I went back home with Jeremy's promise to come over later. When I arrived at home I found Elena there, in a deep conversation with Damon.

"Scheming again?" I asked airily, walking past them to get a snack from the nearly empty kitchen.

"No, we're not." Damon said.

"Happy birthday, by the way." Elena said. She sounded sincere.

"Thanks." I came back with a package of Oreos and settled on the couch. "Do tell; how are we going to kill the Original now?"

"Actually, we were going to have Jeremy ask Rose who sire her." Damon said. "He can see dead people, after all."

"He can _what_?" Black cookie crumbs tumbled down my lap.

Elena said, "He can talk to ghosts. He died once, so now he can see them when others can't."

"Fair enough." It wasn't the weirdest thing I'd heard since coming here, not by a long shot.

When he arrived Damon and Elena forced Jeremy to sit on the couch—at least it was next to me—and told him to try and reach out to Rose.

"I need to know something about her." Jeremy said. "I can't just conjure her from nowhere."

"She did this thing with her tongue that—"

"NO!" I shrieked, flinging a pillow at him. "It was bad enough with Sage and Rebekah!"

"Fine." He said. "Well, when she died…"

He launched into some explanation of a dream he gave her, and Jeremy said that Rose was in the room within seconds. I didn't pay much attention to what Jeremy was saying, but instead watched his facial expression. I guessed that Rose had said something as disgusting as what Damon had, because his eyebrows pulled together and his eyes widened. When he said that Rose missed Damon and Elena, I couldn't help but wonder what Rose had really said. Jeremy looked like he was lying.

It was quickly decided that we would take an impromptu road trip to Kansas to find "Scary Mary" (Damon started to explain his exact relationship with her, but I shut him up as quickly as I could), because _of course_ that was a perfectly safe idea and not in any way stupid.

The car die itself was awful. With Elena and Damon in the front seat Jeremy and I sank into an awkward, non-kissing silence. When we reached the house Rose had mentioned Damon and Elena made us wait in the car. It was getting dark.

"Having a fun birthday?" Jeremy asked once Elena and Damon were out of sight.

I frowned. "Oh, definitely."

"It could be worse."

"Oh, yeah, I've had a lot worse before." I agreed. "So, you think they'll find her in there?"

He shrugged. "I think that would be too easy. There's always something gone wrong."

He was right. Elena and Damon came back to report that Mary was dead, and Kol was responsible for killing her. Rose showed up and suggested that we wait in Kansas while she went to track down Mary's ghost if she could.

The hotel was crappy. Damon and Elena allowed Jeremy and I to share a bed, but only if we kept a wall of pillows between us.

I woke up with a start in the middle of the night, hearing the door slam. "Jeremy?"

"Hmmmmmm?"

"Jeremy!" I hissed, throwing aside several pillows. "Jeremy, what was that?"

He moaned and pulled his own pillow over his head. "Go away."

"Jeremy, I heard something!" I glanced at the other bed and saw it was empty. So was the chair Damon had been in. "Damon and Elena are gone! JEREMY!"

He mumbled something from underneath his pillow, something that sounded like, "Take a long walk off a short pier."

"I'm warning you…" I said. "I will force you out of this bed."

Another unintelligible noise.

"Fine, but you can't say I didn't warn you."

I grabbed the sheets in my hands and pulled so hard that they unrolled, sending Jeremy flying off the bed. He was up in a second. "WHAT?"

"Oh, now you're coherent." I gestured for him to follow. "Come on, I heard noises. Damon and Elena are both gone, too."

We crept to the door and opened it. I stuck my head outside, letting Jeremy go first. When he said. "Elena…?" I had to step outside and see what was going on.

I instantly regretted it. Damon and Elena were lip-locked, and judging by Elena's flushed face and Damon's open shirt it had been going on for a while.

"Really?" I asked. "_Really?_ Don't you remember what happened last time you kissed Elena?"

Damon blinked in confusion, buttoning his shirt. "Um, you hit me?"

"Exactly. What are you thinking?"

Jeremy said nothing, just giving Elena a disapproving glare. Elena blushed further and ducked into the hotel room.

"Any news on Mary?" Damon asked, trying to be causal as he brushed a strand of hair from his eye.

Jeremy shrugged. "Not yet."

Fortunately, Rose came back two hours later. Unfortunately, she couldn't find Mary.

**A/N: Yay for abrupt endings and chapters written in an hour.**


	14. Do Not Go Gentle

**A/N: I am back, despite Alaric's devastating death. Seriously, it killed me inside even though he's not dead dead, just vampire dead. The scene where he was just standing, watching everyone as they all looked sad and cried—that was so beautiful and heartbreaking.**

**Anyway…**

**Oh, and for any Secret Circle watchers; did the creepy clown with the knife scare you? 'Cause I had nightmares about it. I kept thinking it was standing next to my bed with the knife, laughing. *shudder***

Hazel's POV

"I'm going to the dance!"

"Hazel, stop that!"

"I'm going to the dance!" I sang again, tossing a dress over my head and grinning as it hit Damon. "I'm going to the dance with Jeremy, and it's going to be amazing, and you can't stop me!"

"I can't?" he asked. He removed the red dress from his head and glared. "Why not?"

"Because you made me go on that stupid trip and you kissed Elena, all on my birthday." I said. I pulled out another dress, a beautiful off-white one with tassels. "So you can't really stop me from going to a dance, because nothing bad will happen."

He sighed. "Haze, did you not hear me when I said that every dance I've gone to here has ended in tragedy?"

"No, actually." I said. "I wasn't paying attention. Name one dance that went badly."

"Elena got kidnapped at one."

"What decade?"

He shrugged. "What does it matter?"

"It doesn't." I held up a pale blue dress that was made of thin, flowery lace. "She got kidnapped. So what? Clearly you got her back."

"Bonnie died at the 60's one."

"That was _fake_." I said. "Jeremy told me about that one, and it wasn't real. She didn't actually die, and it helped almost kill Klaus."

Damon shook his head and groaned, rumpling his hair in frustration. "You could get hurt."

"Jeremy will keep me safe." I said, partly because I wanted to annoy him and partly because it was true. "I'm not a baby, Damon. I can take care of myself."

I finally decided to wear a different pale blue dress from the 20's, with lots of fringe on the edges. My necklace would match it perfectly.

Damon finally surrendered, holding up his hands in defeat. "Fine, but don't go blaming me if you get killed."

I jumped up and down, excitedly waving the dress as he departed. It was the first real dance I'd been to, one that actually involved teenagers and a date. I couldn't repress my few gleeful squeals of excitement as I ran upstairs to try the dress on and get ready to go. Jeremy would already be at the school, since he was helping set it up and do the decorations.

The dress was perfect, especially when I touched up my eyes with baby blue eyeshadow and my cheeks with the lightest pink blush, so it was barely visible. I did my lips with a simple, clear lipstick that had sparkles in it (I raided Stella's room for that). Combined with the dress, it drastically brought out my eyes and softened my whole face. I looked nice for once, no sharp edges or retorts. The only bright color was the gold of the lion necklace at my throat, ruby eyes twinkling.

"Stella, look at this dress I found!" I yelled, dashing to her room. When I stopped at her doorway I saw she was searching through her closet. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to." She said. She turned around. "You look really pretty."

"Thanks." I said. "What are you going to wear?"

She held up a 20's flapper dress, one that looked like it was made of silvery-white lace, almost translucent and rainbow. It looked see-through, but I could tell it was only at certain parts, like down the back all the way to the waist.

"Fancy." I said approvingly. "Any particular date in mind?"

She blushed, shaking her head. "No."

I left it at that, though I knew it probably had something to do with where she was disappearing to.

I was over-hyper as I waited for the time to leave and head to school. Stefan had allegedly been invited by Elena, and I ended up bothering him until he left for her house. He was a lot nicer, almost like old Stefan. Maybe that was what Stella had been doing; spending time with him and getting him back to his old self.

Finally I left, decided to just run to the school. I went a back way through the woods so that no one would see me, arriving in a matter of minutes.

Jeremy looked perfect, as usual. I saw Bonnie kept glancing at him. She'd been too busy with her mom's death and transition, so we'd never met before. She was glaring daggers at me, and she looked jealous when Jeremy leaned down to kiss my cheek.

"You look perfect, as always." Jeremy said. I blushed. "Very angelic. Odd."

I laughed, halfheartedly hitting him. "Hey!"

"What?"

"I can be angelic." I said. I batted my eyelashes at him.

He smiled. "I believe you."

My feet started to jitter, shuffling to the beat of the music as we walked in. "I love the 20's." I said.

"You were alive then, weren't you?"

I nodded. "I was. Stella and I stayed on the west coast through most of it. Stefan said he was in Chicago."I sighed, letting my mind drift as Jeremy led me to the dance floor. "We used to go to all these parties, where flappers would come to dance. Red lipstick, tassels, short hair. It was a good time to be undead."

"You had fun, then?" he asked. He took my hands and started to dance.

"Oh, yeah."

I soon found that Jeremy was just as bad a dancer as I was, if not more so. I kept stepping on his feet, and he was forever back me into other people by accident. Half the student body wanted us dead by time an hour had passed.

We finally stopped by the table with punchy and food. I sniffed it suspiciously. "There's something in this."

"There always is." Jeremy downed his in a gulp. "Same with the stuff at the Halloween dance."

"Oh." I decided to give it a try and took a sip. The stuff burned my throat, it was so heavily laced with what tasted like vodka. "Mystic Falls has no morals."

"Almost half the students die every year." He pointed out. "Everyone just wants to experience life all at once in case something happens to them."

"Cheerful."

"It's true."

I didn't answer, instead sipping my drink and watching everyone. Stefan and Elena were slow dancing. When I listened to them talk I heard something about how Stefan didn't want to know what happened in Denver because Elena could never hurt him as much as he hurt her when he left. I snorted. Great. Now she had an endless supply of "get out of jail free" cards, all because Stefan screwed up.

Bonnie and the unknown date seemed happy. They were talking about nonsense. The same went for Caroline and Tyler, though Tyler looked upset.

That's when I noticed Stella. She was all the way across the gym, dancing with someone tall, dressed in white. Whoever he was, he practically matched her dress. I strained my eyes, mentally telling him to turn. When he did my mouth fell open.

It was _Klaus_. That evil Original had his arms around my sister, resting at the small of her back. She was laughing at something he said, her arms around his neck. Her cheeks were red from blushing.

"Oh, _hell_ no!" I said, snapping Jeremy from his trance.

"What?" He asked, expecting some sort of immediate danger. I pointed. "Is Stella with Klaus?"

"Yes." I hissed. I was about to go over to them when Stefan and Damon came up.

"Jeremy, we need to talk." Stefan said. "Bonnie needs your blood for a spell, because Esther did some sort of boundary spell to keep all the vampires stuck at the dance."

"What?"

He glanced at me. "She's trying to get Alaric on her side, or something. Elena left with Esther."

If my heart could, it would have been pounding out of my chest. "What can I do?"

"Act normal." Damon advised. "DO whatever you were doing before we got here."

"So I should storm over there and scream at Stella?"

"If you want." Damon said. He didn't care about the reason. He just grabbed Jeremy by the arm and hauled him off. I pouted, wondering if there would ever be a time where I got five minutes alone with Jeremy.

When I reached Stella Klaus was long gone. "What is wrong with you?" I asked, taking her wrist and pulling her to the edge of the gym. "Klaus? Really? _Klaus_?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said, eyes flitting away from me.

I said, "You were dancing with him, remember?"

"No I wasn't."

"Yeah, Stella, you were!" I insisted, voice rising an octave. "I saw it. Don't you know he's dangerous?"

Stella suddenly looked me in the eyes, a bright spark lighting her own. "He's just confused and lonely, but clearly no one in this town has any sympathy for him. I'm not a helpless little girl, Hazel, and I'm not as innocent as you think. I know he _can_ be dangerous, but he can also be very sweet and gentle. Klaus understand that I'm not naïve and stupid, like you all think I am. Maybe if you'd give him a chance you would see how nice he can be!" She stormed off, out a side door. Her cheeks were flushed red with anger.

I did feel somewhat guilty, because she was right. She was fourteen, but she had lived over a hundred years. It had to be frustrating, though, to have people look at you and think you were little. She could never have a real relationship because most people her "age" would be too immature for her, and kissing was as far as she'd ever get. From what she had said I guessed that Klaus treated her as an adult rather than a child.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do about it. I finally found Damon and Stefan, only to hear that Jeremy had left to go stop Esther. When Klaus joined us outside I sent him hostile looks but refused to speak.

"How much longer?" I asked Stefan tersely. He shrugged.

Bonnie appeared at the doorway. "It's done. You can leave now."

Without a second thought I raced over the boundary, Klaus in hot pursuit. Soon he, Damon, and Stefan had all outdone me and were a few feet ahead. When we reached the graveyard—the Salvatore crypt, to be exact—what I saw horrified me.

Esther was dead. I didn't care why or how. What hurt me was Jeremy, trying to brush away tears. Elena was crying openly, explain to Stefan that Alaric had been turned by Esther and that he had to die, because becoming a vampire would make him evil forever.

"He can't die." Jeremy sniffed, making me realize that he stood next to me.

"Jeremy," I began. I had never been good at comforting people who were hurt.

An eerie silence feel over the graveyard as Meredith, Bonnie, Jamie, Caroline, Tyler, and many others joined us. Alaric appeared from the doorway of the crypt. He didn't say a word, just looked at everyone. I felt a pang of sympathy for him. Eventually Meredith moved forward, walking inside with him. I had no idea what she was doing and didn't particularly care.

I forced Jeremy to walk home with me. I was afraid to let him out of my sight in his condition. When we reached the boardinghouse I made him sit, curling up close to him without really touching him. "Jeremy?"

"I can't believe that after all I've lost Alaric is finally going to die." He mumbled. A tear slid from his eye. "It's not fair."

I felt even worse. What was I supposed to say? "I'm sorry… I wish I could do something."

"You can."

"What?" I was surprised.

He whispered, "Stay here with me?"

I nodded, forcing the smile I had to stay off my face. I leaned forward tentatively, half on his lap. "I will."

**A/N: Whoop. Done. Yay.**


	15. Before Sunset

**A/N: this is my first year actually watching VD while it's airing… can't believe it's almost over.**

**Also, VD watchers: you need to watch Secret Circle after watching VD, so that it'll get renewed next year, because it so amazingly awesome. Just sayin'.**

**By the way, parts of this are kinda shortened, and this isn't spellchecked. Sorry.**

Hazel's POV

When I woke the first thing I noticed was an absence of warmth at my side, and that I was in the Gilbert living room. A blue blanket had been thrown over my limp form.

"Jeremy?" I asked softly. I got up, stretching and yawning. "Hello?"

I heard a few faint noises from upstairs. When I strained my ears I could hear Elena and Jeremy talking in whispers, while something moved back and forth, like a broom.

I followed the sounds, finally emerging at the top of the stairs and smelling wet paint. "Jeremy? Elena?"

"Hazel?" Jeremy opened the door to Alaric's old room. "Hey there. Elena and I tried to be quiet, since you have super-sonic hearing."

"You didn't wake me." I said. I edged forward just the slightest, treating Jeremy like a wounded animal. I didn't want to upset him, but I guessed I was wrong when he stepped forward, taking both my hands.

"Come on," he urged softly, like _I _was the one that would bolt. "We're just repainting the room."

"Okay." I smiled, pulling him into a one-armed hug. "Though I should warn you that I'm not much of a worker."

We walked inside. The room looked patchy, with at least three different paint colors, but I decided not to judge. Elena and Jeremy were suffering, and the last thing they needed was my snarky comments.

Jeremy sat down on the barren floor, pulling me with him. I leaned back, reveling in the feel of his body against my back. "So… it's morning?"

"Yeah." Elena said. "I think it's seven o'clock."

"Hmmm." I acknowledged her. It was one of the few times that Elena hadn't said a single word about Jeremy and I, especially since we were so close at the moment. She just kept painting. "Pretty colors."

"Yeah." She said again. I noticed that she ducked her head, hiding it behind a sheet of brown hair. "I guess."

"Are you okay?" I ventured. It was such a stupid question of course she wasn't. Still, I felt like I should ask.

Elena didn't say a word, just kept painting furiously. Her shoulders were shaking wildly.

"Elena?" Jeremy asked.

I got up and walked closer. "Elena?" I reached out to touch her. When my hand rested lightly on her shoulder Elena flinched and whipped around. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gasped for air.

"What's wrong?" Jeremy said behind me. I could have slapped him for being so thick-skulled.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered. Elena looked miserable, shaking and hugging her waist. "Really, Elena, I am."

Suddenly Elena was in my arms—which was highly unsettling—sobbing and trying to say something but failing very badly. "I… I'm sorry." I heard between high-pitched breaths. "I'm… so awful to y-you…"

"It's okay." I soothed, glancing at Jeremy with panic-stricken eyes, mouthing, "Help!" He shrugged. I glared, rubbing circles on Elena's back. "It's okay, Elena, I promise that it'll be okay."

I prayed she wouldn't hold me to my promises.

Eventually her heavy breathing slowed, and I forced her to sit. She was reluctant to let go, but finally she allowed me to detach myself. I was awful at comforting people, and I always had been. It was bad enough with Jeremy, when I had wanted to make him fell better, but with Elena I was afraid that if I said something wrong she would ban me from the house.

"Sorry." She mumbled, scrubbing the mascara-and-tears mixture all over her face in an attempt to get it off. "Really, I am sorry. I didn't mean to freak out like that—"

"It's not your fault." I said. I held back every snippy comment that was in my mind. "I mean… Alaric died. He was all you had left for a parent."

Elena sniffed, nodding. "He was."

Jeremy very tactfully swooped in—finally!—and put a comforting arm around Elena. "I'm still here."

Elena managed a weak laugh. "You can't be a parent, Jer, you're only sixteen."

"No, but I'll always be here for you."

And _that_ was why I walked out as Elena began to cry again. I passed Stefan on the way down the stairs, but he motioned for me to be quiet. Honestly, I had no idea what he was up to and didn't particularly care. When I reached the foot of the stairs the doorbell rang, and I answered it.

Damon was standing there, holding up a bleeding and mortified Bonnie. "We have a problem. Where's Stefan?"

Stella's POV

It was lonely at the boardinghouse. After Alaric's death Hazel had brought Jeremy home with her, but at three in the morning he'd taken her and driven off with her. It probably should have alarmed me, but I knew Jeremy wouldn't harm Hazel. He wouldn't be able to if he tried.

One by one, everyone left. Eventually I was the only one sitting in the boardinghouse, listening to the occasional creaks and groans of the house. It was really getting old.

My feet finally forced me to move, taking my unwilling brain and my longing heart directly to Klaus's house—or mansion. It was like a huge mansion, and gorgeous. I still remembered it from the ball.

I knocked hesitantly at the door. There were some hurried whispers, and Klaus opened it. He looked surprised, while behind him Rebekah looked peeved. She mumbled something about the neighborhood being full of tramps as she walked off.

"Stella?" Klaus asked gently. I realized I was trembling. "What are you doing here?"

"I… um… I…" I breathed. He didn't say a word. "I don't know. I guess I wanted to see you."

He stepped aside, letting me in. "I'm glad." He said, taking my hand and leading somewhere. "You see, I'm actually… leaving. With Alaric on the loose I can't take any chances."

"What?" I said, finding my voice. I jerked my hand away. "Alaric's dead."

"No, he's not." Klaus said. "Somehow he got blood before he died, and now he's hiding until the sun goes down."

I shivered at the thought. "Oh."

Klaus took my hand again, pulling me into a room full of paintings. "I have something for you."

"Y-You do?"

"Yes."

The painting he handed me was exquisite: it was me, but in it I was around twenty or thirty years old. My face had rounded out, my hair was longer, and I was just a little bit taller. Somehow he had managed to make it look like my eyes were sparkling and my hair was shining in the sun. As I looked lower, I noticed that I had a tiny hand grasped in mine, and a child's head of curly golden-brown locks peeked in at the corner. Only a tiny face was visible, obscured by a waterfall of hair. I gasped.

"I know that it's something you can never have for real, but I wanted you to remember there's one person in the world that sees you as an adult."

I nodded, smiling. "Thank you."

Klaus kissed my cheek. "Goodbye, Stella Salvatore."

Hazel's POV

Alaric was "alive" in the undead sense. Klaus wanted to kidnap Elena and she vanished. Bonnie and Jeremy were plotting behind my back.

What else was new?

Well, the last one was. As soon as Bonnie had explained what happened and Klaus showed up, demanding Elena, Jeremy had gone to talk to her. Damon kept me well occupied, trying to spot Klaus through the window to see what he was up to. Of course, that was when Klaus decided to throw a newspaper out the window.

"Watch out!" I screamed, hitting the carpet a moment too late. Glass rained down me, and so did the frame that held the window up. I shrieked, afraid to mo0ve for fear of making it worse. To my right I saw Stefan on top of Bonnie, shielding her. I decided to suck it up and rose to my feet. Shards of glass tumbled from my hair and body as I winced.

"I am going to go out there and kick the crap out of his sorry ass." I snarled, irritated—no, infuriated—by the glass digging into my skin.

"Hazel…" Damon warned.

"Fine!" I complained. "But I _want_ to!"

"Leave it." He ordered.

Only two more attacks and suddenly we were on Klaus's side. Leave it to Elena to walk into the lion's den, the figurative lion being Alaric. As for Caroline… from I'd heard she got kidnapped and tortured a lot. I wasn't that good of a friend to her anyway.

As soon as they decided to go save Elena and Caroline, Damon told me to stay home. I did, but only because I just had to wait long enough. As soon as they were out of earshot I decided I would follow.

I crouched outside the school, watching as Bonnie offered her blood to everyone. It was strange, and she didn't say what it was for. Jeremy was gone, probably off doing something else. Only after a few minutes after they went in I saw Klaus blur past, holding a limp form in his arms. Was it Elena?

_Then_ Damon and Stefan found me. I sulked when they wouldn't tell me where they were going or what they were doing. I headed off into the woods, hoping maybe Jeremy would be at the boardinghouse.

Halfway there I heard senseless chanting, in Bonnie's voice. "Bonnie?"

"Jeremy? Jeremy?" I heard her say. "Jeremy!"

I sped to where they were. Jeremy was lying on the ground, Bonnie shaking him frantically. His heart wasn't beating.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" I screamed hysterically, rushing to his side and shoving Bonnie away. I could hear her hit something at least ten feet away. I could feel bad about that later.

Jeremy surged from the ground, gasping and drawing a few choking breaths. I heard his heart pounding a million miles an hour. When he saw me he was surprised. "Hazel?"

"I'm here." I said. My face was wet, probably from tears.

"Is… is Bonnie okay?"

I drew back like I'd been hit. "What?"

"Did the spell hurt Bonnie?" the concern in his eyes burned me to the very core.

"No." I hissed. "But the fact that I shoved her into a tree might have."

"What?"

"I thought she was hurting you!" I said, voice high-pitched. "Why do you care so much about Bonnie anyway?"

"I… Hazel, I don't love her like you do." He said. He knew what I was angry about now. "She's my friend, and I can't afford to lose any more, okay?"

Tears came to my eyes again, and I crawled back to his side, resting my forehead to his. "I'm sorry."

"I am too." Bonnie said. She was standing over us. "That spell was too dangerous." I felt a pang of regret when I saw that her head was bleeding, and her neck wound had reopened. She looked devastated, but turned and walked away. "I'll see you later."

**O.o.O.o.O.**

Long after the party—celebrating Klaus's desiccation, which learned about when Jeremy and I got home—the two of us were curled up on the couch. "This day hasn't been too bad, by Mystic Falls standards." I teased. In my hands I held a crumpled piece of paper.

"What's that?"

"This?" I held up the paper. "A letter… from back home."

"Back home?" he asked. "Like, a letter from your parents from a long time ago?"

"No." I said. I couldn't stop the grin spreading across my face. "A letter from one of my old friends, Sarah. She lives in Washington, in Chance Harbor. She wants me to come visit."

Jeremy gently pried the letter from my hands, scanning it quickly. "And she wants you to bring me?"

"It could be fun!" I said. "Think about it; a summer road trip, with just the two of us and all my insane friends. I mean,. They do have their own supernatural drama—"

"Why me?" Jeremy asked the ceiling, laughed when I looked insulted.

"But," I continued, "They're really nice. I'm sure that it would be fun."

"We'll go when everything here settles down." Jeremy promised. "Or, you know, we could just do it once we can't take the chaos."

"Sounds good."

There was a soft bang from upstairs. "Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?"

"Something fell."

**A/N: Or someone… *cough* Elena *cough cough* because she was dumb enough to get drunk after losing blood, and **_**then **_**she decided to smell paint for a while. Smart move.**


	16. The Departed

**A/N: This is late (sorry). I've been working on The Secret Circle Project (long story) and it's taking up a ton of my time. That's why this chapter is a little rushed, so I apologize.**

**Can't wait for season 4!**

Hazel's POV

"Something fell?" asked Jeremy. I nodded. "What?"

"You have a clumsy sister in a room full of paint. What do you think happened?" I teased, settling back into the couch.

"Very funny."

I was about to retort when I smelled a very faint trace of blood. "Jeremy…"

"That the best you got?"

I got up wordlessly, trying to listen for the telltale whooshing sound that could alert me to another vampire in the house. There was nothing. Just the smell of blood and the now uneven pitter-patter of Elena's heart. I darted up the stairs, ignoring Jeremy.

Elena was sprawled on the floor of Alaric's bedroom, blood dripping from her nose and mixing with the paints. Pinkish-red colors bled into the patchwork of greens. The scene was grotesque. "JEREMY!"

I heard his heavy steps behind me, and his gasp. "What happened?"

"Paint fumes?" I suggested. "She did lose a lot of blood, and then Caroline got her drunk."

"We have to get her to a hospital!" he said. He didn't seem happy, even though I hadn't been joking about paint fumes.

It was a blur the next few minutes. He called 911, even though I suggested several times I give Elena my blood. It would have been easier and safer, since Elena wouldn't have to leave the house. When the ambulance arrived I took off in the direction of the hospital.

When I reached the door I ran inside, locating Meredith immediately. I knew her office because it smelled odd, like vampire blood. Damon had told me she used that to cure patients. "Meredith?" I asked. She looked up.

"Yeah?"

"Elena's coming here in a few minutes, she passed out. I thought you should know, in case there's something supernaturally wrong with her."

"Of course." She dropped the chart she was holding. "While you're here…?"

"Yes?"

She looked embarrassed. "I've been running low on blood, and Damon's loath to give me any…"

"Sure." I casually bit my wrist, grabbing a random plastic container from the table. "Anything to get on Damon's nerves."

"That wasn't why I asked—"

I laughed. "I know, but as long as it annoys him I'm happy. If it helps you save people, so be it. You might need it for Elena."

Meredith's features shifted to those ones of concern. "Why didn't you give her blood while she was at home? Leaving that house can't be safe for her anymore."

"It isn't." I put a lid on the container and handed it to her. "Jeremy was too freaked. He insisted she come here, and I don't think I could have stopped him without force."

"I see." Meredith was distracted by a doctor shouting orders in the hallway, probably ions about Elena. "I have to go."

Meredith made sure that Elena had a room that was near her office, and more secluded. Hopefully Elena wouldn't be discovered.

"She's fine." I said to Jeremy, who was watching over her at the moment. "Look. She's breathing, she doesn't even have any cuts."

Jeremy pointed mutely to the red line on her throat.

"Well, that was from something else, not from her fainting or collapsing. Besides, Meredith said she only has a concussion." That I knew was a lie. I'd heard someone saying words like "hemorrhage" and "brain damage" as they examined Elena. I knew better than to believe she only had a concussion.

"I know you're right." He finally said. From behind him I reached over his shoulder, grasping his hand in mine. "I just worry about her."

"She's fine now." I assured him. _The vampire blood will keep her from dying like she would have._ "I promise."

"You promise a lot of things." He said.

"And I keep my promises, don't I?"

"I recall being promised a ham sandwich a few days ago, and I never got that."

I snorted. "I never said any such thing."

"Yes you did!"

"Did not!"

"You did, actually." A faint voice said.

"Elena!" I shrieked, promptly breaking my stony-and snarky façade to hug her, making her squeak.

"Lungs…. Collapsing…" she grunted. I jumped away.

"Sorry." I said. "And I promised nothing!"

"Yeah, you did." She said. She smiled at me over Jeremy shoulder when he hugged her, more gently than I had. "You promised me you would get me lemonade."

"Pshhhh… I did not." I dismissed the idea with a flick of my wrist. Before I could argue further my phone rang. "What?"

"I just got a text from Jeremy." Damon said calmly. I heard him take a deep breath. "YOU LET HIM TAKE ELENA TO A HOSPITAL?"

"Not 'let' so much as 'went along with'." I said. "She's awake, and I'll have Meredith let her out of the hospital right now if you want."

"I do want that."

I sighed, resting my head against the wall. "You're so high-maintenance."

"This isn't something to joke about, Hazel." He snapped, seriousness underlying in his irritated tone.

I zoned out as soon as he started lecturing, and my sensitive ears quickly caught the voices only a few rooms away. I recognized one as Alaric's.

"Got to go, Damon!"

I heard angry protests as I hung up, but ignored them. Matt, Tyler, and Caroline all enetered the room as I looked up. "Oh, good, you're here."

They were confused. Caroline asked, "What?"

"I heard Alaric a few rooms away, so I need someone to carry Elena out. We have to leave."

"I can walk!" Elena protested. Matt and Tyler smirked when she took two steps and wavered, each one offering her an arm. "Okay, maybe not…"

"And off we go!" I whispered cheerily, hoping Alaric hadn't heard us.

**O.o.O.o.O.o.O**

It was a miracle we actually managed to escape consid4ring the constant banging, shuffling, loud-pitched yelps of pain (which had nothing to do with my elbowing Matt to make him go faster), and Caroline's encouraging, "Hurry up, guys, out this back door! See? This blue one. We can walk to Matt's car, even though it's in the parking lot in front. We can do this!" If Alaric had been listening he would have found us in minutes, or he would have waited outside by Matt's car.

Once we were there Jeremy went out for food, Elena slept, Tyler and Caroline left, and Matt raided the fridge. I made him watch several episodes of Buffy until he got too freaked out (you think it Mystic Falls the people would be unshakable, but whatever) and decided to watch Elena sleep. I heard her mumble something about Matt and Bonnie in her sleep.

When she woke they had some heart-to-heart talk about sophomore year while I made gagging noises until they stopped. Stefan randomly came back. Elijah showed up too, and told us he wanted to make a bargain with us.

I didn't pay much attention to that either, just mocked Damon's "How-could-you-trust-him-Elena?" speech about Elijah. Poor guy. I had suggested we not include him at all.

Finally I got time alone with Jeremy, upstairs in his room. Elena, Matt, and Stefan all stayed downstairs. "What do you think will happen?" I asked Jeremy. He was lounging on his bed, listlessly trailing pencil along a sheet of paper.

He shrugged. "I guess they'll do what Elijah suggested, and hope that Alaric does chase after them but doesn't catch them."

I wanted to bang my head against the wall in frustration. "Which means I will inevitably die."

"Not for a long time." reasoned Jeremy. "And something else could kill you before then."

"Love you too." I snapped. He grinned. "What's so funny?"

"Your nose crinkled when you get mad at me." Jeremy sat up and tapped my nose with his index finger. "I find it rather endearing."

I blushed. "You're just saying that so I won't yell at you."

"Maybe." He sat silently for a moment. "Can I draw you?"

"You want to do a picture of me?" No one had ever asked me something like that before. "I guess you could. Do I have to sit still?"

"Would you hurt me if I said yes?"

"Maybe."

I agreed, if only because the idea seemed to relax Jeremy. He had me sit at his window seat with my legs starched out in front of me, knees bent. My hands were folded in my lap. My cheek pressed against the cold glass. It was boring, but not as much when Jeremy had to come over and fix the way my hair fell so it would "look better". I had a feeling he just wanted to do that adorable head-stroking thing he always did when I got anxious. It was cute.

My legs were jittery within minutes, but I held still. I imagined that I wasn't Hazel Salvatore; I was just a nice, normal girl spending time with her boyfriend under completely normal circumstance that did not involve vampires or Originals.

My phone buzzed. "Damn it!" I had moved as soon as I felt the stupid thing vibrate. "Sorry."

He held up the drawing, showing a complete charcoal outline. "Actually, it's mostly done. I just have to do shading, and I don't need you to stay still for that."

I answered the phone, glaring when I saw the caller ID said it was Damon. "What?"

"You might want to sit down."

I did so, scared by his tone. "What happened?" downstairs I heard Stefan pacing. Jeremy got up and left when he heard Stefan yell, "Jeremy? Where's Elena?"

I ignored everything around me. "Damon?"

"Klaus… he's dead."

"Yay!" I mock-cheered, not relaxing what it meant for me.

Silence.

"What, Damon?"

"There's a good chance that he sired our bloodline." Damon said solemnly. "Which means we might not…" he trailed off.

If my heart still beat, it would have stopped. "Oh."

My mind instantly went to Jeremy. Jeremy! He had already lost two girlfriends to death, how would he take this?

"Hazel?" Damon asked.

"I'm here." I said. "Does Stefan know? Does Stella?"

"Yes and yes. I sent Stefan over to explain to Elena and Jeremy. As for Stella… I called her. She's out of town."

"What?"

"She said that she talked to Klaus, and he gave her some sort of painting. It confused her a lot, and since none of us had enough time to help she went to Chance Harbor. She's staying with Melissa."

I felt immensely guilty. "I should have talked to her more."

"Not your fault." He said shortly. "She said to tell everyone goodbye in case Klaus wasn't lying about siring our line. She says she loves you."

If I had to listen to any more I knew I would cry. "O-Okay. Damon?"

"Yes?"

"I… um… I l-love you too, you know."

"I know, Haze, I love you even more."

I sighed. "You haven't acted like it ever since I got here."

"That's because the last time we spent time together was when you were in petticoats."

I hated those dresses. I laughed, my throat tight with tears that would surely come when I saw Jeremy. "Too bad we don't get any more time."

"Yeah."

After a minute I whispered, "goodbye" and hung up. Any more time and I would lose it.

When I went downstairs Jeremy didn't say a word. He just sat on the couch with me and held me while I shook uncontrollably, too scared to cry. What would it be like, to die after being alive for so long? I always took my "life" for granted, even when I was undead. I wondered if I would be like the ghosts Damon had told me about, wandering around because they had unfinished business in the real world.

Suddenly Jeremy looked up, eyes widened. "Alaric?"

I was up and alert in an instant. "Where? I don't see him, Jeremy, where is he?"

"You… you're really Alaric?" Jeremy asked the air. After a minute, he said, "What do you mean by goodbye? You… you died?"

I gasped. " You see his ghost?"

Jeremy turned away. "I did, but it's gone now. He's gone."

"Oh, Jeremy…" I breathed. He looked confused, and I clapped my hands over my mouth in horror. "Oh no."

"What?"

"Alaric is connected to someone human, so that even he can't be immortal." I said. Has Jeremy been told that part of the story? He still stared blankly.

I took both of his hands. "Elena's dead."

**A/N: Yay. Not spellchecked.**


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